Hubble observes supernova 1994I in M51

On May 12, 1994, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has returned the

most detailed images ever of supernova 1994I in the Whirlpool

Galaxy M51.

The view in this picture encompasses the inner region of the

galaxy’s grand spiral disk, which extends all the way to the

bright nucleus.

An arrow points to the location of the supernova, which lies

approximately 2,000 light-years from the nucleus. The supernova

appears to be superposed on a diffuse background of starlight.

The Hubble Space Telescope was also used to measure the spectrum

of the supernova in the ultraviolet light, which can be used to

analyze the chemical composition and the motion of the gas

ejected in the explosion.

This supernova was

discovered on April 2, 1994 by amateur

astronomers Jerry Armstrong and Tim Puckett of the Atlanta Astronomy

Club and has been the target of investigations by astronomers using

ground-based optical and radio telescopes and NASA’s International

Ultraviolet Explorer satellite.

Because a supernova explosion is a billion times as bright as a star

like the Sun, they can be seen to great distances and may prove useful

in charting the size of the universe. These previous observations

show that SN 1994I is a very unusual supernova, called “Type Ic,” for

which very few examples have been studied carefully. The ultraviolet

observations made with HST will help astronomers understand what type

of stellar explosion led to supernova 1994I.

Credit:

Robert P. Kirshner/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,

NASA