Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  M 61  ·  NGC 4301  ·  NGC 4303
Supernova in M61 - 2020jfo Timelapse Animation, Jason Guenzel

Supernova in M61 - 2020jfo Timelapse Animation

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Description

Here is a video of a star exploding in the distant spiral galaxy, M61!

Supernova 2020jfo was discovered just over a week ago and, fortunately for me, I’ve been recording this galaxy since February of this year, slowly collecting exposures as conditions allow.

This is a Type II supernova. The massive star depleted its nuclear fuel. As it exhausted light elements like hydrogen and helium, it began fusing heavier and heavier elements, eventually reaching iron. At this point, it could no longer support itself with outward pressure against the tremendous gravity. This type of supernova starts with an implosion and an almost immediate reversal to a massive explosion which, as you can see here, can literally outshine an entire galaxy. Though this process, it seeds the building blocks for a new generation.

Capturing all these images enabled me to place them in time sequence and play it back. The pictures shot just a few days ago show that, indeed, a massive explosion is happening before our eyes. That thing is 50 million light years away!

The video ends with a quick stack of all the data with minimal processing applied, revealing the faint details of this beautiful galaxy. My apologies on the reduced resolution, I had to make it smaller and GIF isn't an easy format to enable that.

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