Here's the supernova in M101!
It was discovered just recently - Friday, May 19th - by an amateur astronomer in Japan who's discovered quite a lot of supernovae, variable stars, and comets, Koichi Itagaki, at magnitude +14.9, and the latest magnitude I've seen from it is mag ~11, easily reachable visually in almost any telescope! I took this image on Sunday night, which comparing to nearby stars, it might have been around 12 or so, but I was shooting through a light pollution filter and not a photometric one, so magnitude estimates aren't accurate. But anyways, it's very bright!
It's looking like it's a Type II supernova, which is a core-collapse supernova. These events are extreme and incredible, ejecting unfathomable amounts of energy. It's in galaxy M101, which is 21 million lightyears away, so it occurred 21 million years ago, and the light is just now reaching us. It may still be brightening, we'll find out soon! Likely, the remains of this supernova will be a neutron star, although it could turn into a black hole if the star was massive enough (>20 solar masses). I don't think we'll be able to tell which. But very cool either way
The image on the left is a comparison image from a year ago --
https://www.astrobin.com/irqw11/
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