A 10-year-old Canadian girl became the youngest person ever to discover an exploding star, or supernova.
Ten-year-old Kathryn
Gray sits next to a computer at the family's home in Birdton, New Brunswick,
Canada, a suburb of Fredericton, on Monday, Jan. 3. On the computer monitor is
an image in which she discovered a supernova. The Royal Astronomical Society of
Canada says she made the discovery last weekend under the watch of two other
astronomers.
David Smith/The
Canadian Press/AP Photo
It may have only
appeared as a tiny, glowing spot hovering over a distant galaxy, but the sight
made a precocious 10-year-old amateur astronomer the youngest person ever to
have detected a stellar explosion called a supernova.
Kathryn Aurora Gray
of Fredericton, New Brunswick in Canada discovered the supernova explosion in a
galaxy, called UGC 3378, within the faint constellation of Camelopardalis. The
galaxy is approximately 240 million light-years away.
"I'm really
excited. It feels really good," Gray told the Toronto Star.
Gray made the
discovery on Jan. 2 using images that were taken of galaxy UGC 3378 on New
Year's Eve. The supernova was then verified by Illinois-based amateur
astronomer Brian Tieman and Arizona-based amateur astronomer Jack Newton, who
then reported it to the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for
Astronomical Telegrams.
Gray reported the
stellar explosion under the supervision of her father, Paul Gray, who has made
six prior supernova discoveries, and family friend David Lane, who has found
three others himself. The photos of galaxy UGC 3378 were taken using a
telescope belonging to Lane.
Supernovas are
powerful and violent explosions that signal the deaths of stars several times
more massive than our sun. These cosmic blasts are interesting to astronomers
because they manufacture most of the chemical elements that went into creating
the Earth and other planets. Distant supernovas can also be used to estimate
the size and age of our universe.
The last supernova
found in our galaxy occurred several hundred years ago, and they are considered
relatively rare events. Astronomers can increase their odds of discovering a
supernova by repeatedly checking and comparing many different galaxies.
A new supernova
reveals itself as a bright point of light that was not present in previous
observations. And, since a supernova can outshine millions of ordinary stars,
it is often easy to spot one with a modest telescope, even in distant galaxies
like UGC 3378.
Despite being the
discoverer of this one, Gray didn't get to bestow a name on the object, which
is known simply as Supernova 2010lt.
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