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A newly discovered supernova 21 million light-years from Earth could be a beacon for extraterrestrial communication.
A team of astronomers led by the University of Washington has set its sights on it
SN 2023ixf, in the Pinwheel galaxy, the closest stellar explosion to the human eye in a decade.
The theory stems from the idea that there are at least 100 within about 300 light-years, and scientists are now investigating whether inhabited planets surround them.
If aliens observed the supernova, these civilizations could use it as an attention grabber for their communications.
SN 2023ixf was detected just four minutes after midnight on May 19 at the National Astronomical Observatory in Gozo
SN 2023ixf was detected just four minutes after midnight on May 19 at the National Astronomical Observatory in Gozo, allowing researchers to determine that it was a Type II supernova that was a star at least eight times the size of our sun.
A type II supernova explosion occurs when a very large star can no longer fuse atoms in its core, causing it to explode and shed its outer layers.
Light from an exploding star can be visible months or even years after the event.
Supernovae are one of the reasons astronomers say we’re all made of stardust because they leave the space around them full of heavy elements.
These elements form a young star, which can later lead to generations of new stars and planets.
And because SN 2023ixf is much younger than previous supernova observations, the University of Washington team believes it is a prime candidate to monitor for extraterrestrial radio signals, New scientist reports.
The team, led by James Davenport, is using the “SETI ellipsoid,” an egg-shaped space zone where alien civilizations would have had enough time to observe an astronomical event, for this researcher.
In this case, the zone would include the 100 nearby stars.
Astronomers are using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in North Carolina and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in Virginia to study that launch and determine if there are habitable planets around it.
The theory stems from the idea that there are at least 100 within about 300 light years, and scientists are now investigating whether inhabited planets surround them
“We plan to revisit the Ellipsoid once a month in the coming months as new stars enter the sample, and we are open to synchronizing our observations with other multi-wavelength facilities,” the study reads. arXiv.
Davenport admitted to New Scientist that he and his team are unlikely to make contact with aliens, but believes it is worth a try.
“The worst that can happen is that a signal comes in and we don’t notice it because we didn’t bother to look,” he said.
Anyway, the discovery of the supernova is astonishing to astronomers.
It resides in the Pinwheel Galaxy, or m101, a giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas 170,000 light-years across – nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
M101 is estimated to contain at least a trillion stars.
The galaxy’s spiral arms are dotted with large areas of star-forming nebulae.
These nebulae are regions of intense star formation in giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant young clusters of hot blue newborn stars follow the spiral arms.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, who takes amazing images of space and shares them on his Twitter account, was one of the first civilians to capture this epic event.
He put together an animation using several photos of the Pinwheel Galaxy, showing a flashing light in the corner that was the exploding star.
“I used the color data I already had on this galaxy and stacked about 10 minutes worth of exposures to create this animation,” McCarthy tweeted.
“You can see how close the supernova is to some of the nebulae in the arm…imagine the view from there!”
McCarthy told DailyMail.com that he had been photographing the Pinwheel Galaxy for months, and the star exploded like a lucky shot.
NASA said SN 2023ixf will likely brighten and remain visible to telescopes for months.
Andy Howell, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, explained on Twitter, “You should be able to see it with backyard telescopes for a few months, though it will be just a bright spot.”