LEDA 22057 is a galaxy that lies in the direction of the constellation Gemini. Recently, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope were able to see a supernova with unusual parameters in it.
Supernova discovery in image LEDA 22057
This photo of the week, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy LEDA 22057, which is located about 650 million light-years away, in the constellation Gemini. Like the previous photo of the week, LEDA 22057 is the site of a supernova explosion.
This supernova, named SN 2024PI, was discovered using an automated survey in January 2024. The survey covers the entire northern half of the night sky every two days and has already cataloged more than 10,000 supernovae.
The supernova is visible in the image: located just below and to the right of the galaxy’s nucleus, the pale blue dot SN 2024PI stands out against the background of the galaxy’s ghostly spiral arms. This image was taken about a month and a half after the supernova was discovered, so the supernova is seen here many times fainter than at the time of its maximum brilliance.
Features of supernova SN 2024PI
SN 2024PI is classified as a Type Ia supernova. This type of supernovae requires a special object called a white dwarf — the crystallized core of a star with a mass less than about eight times that of the Sun. When a star of this size exhausts the supply of hydrogen in its core, it swells into a red giant, becoming cold and luminous.
Over time, pulsations and stellar winds cause the star to shed its outer layers, leaving behind a white dwarf and a colorful planetary nebula. White dwarfs can have surface temperatures of more than 100,000 degrees Celsius and are extremely dense, accommodating roughly the mass of the Sun in an Earth-sized sphere.
Type Ia supernovae and stellar evolution
Although almost all stars in the Milky Way will one day turn into white dwarfs, a fate that awaits the Sun in about five billion years, not all of them will explode as Type Ia supernovae. For this to happen, the white dwarf has to be a member of a binary star system.
When a white dwarf sucks material from a stellar partner, it can become too massive to support itself. The resulting explosion of nuclear fusion spiraling out of control destroys the white dwarf in a supernova explosion that can be seen many galaxies away.
According to phys.org
