The moment when the beautiful universe was discovered

On August 25, a supernova was discovered, about 21 million light-years from Earth, closer to any supernova ever.

Astronomers say they caught this image within hours of the explosion, a rare feat that could be done with specialized survey telescopes and current calculation tools. great.

Joshua Bloom, assistant professor of astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, called it "the supernova of a generation." Astronomers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, who discovered and made predictions that it would be one of the main goals to study over the next decade, and most likely, it will become one of the most studied supernovae in history.

PTF 11kly - The most 'young' supernova after 3 nights of observation. (Source: Physorg.com)

This supernova, named PTF 11kly , occurs in the Galaxy of Pinwheels (Pinwheel Galaxy) , located at the Big Dipper galaxy, commonly known as the Ursa Major (Ursa Major) . It was discovered by the automatic survey machine of Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), designed to observe and detect astronomical phenomena that occur on Earth.

"We caught this supernova very soon after the explosion. PTF 11kly brighter in minutes. Yesterday, It was 20 times brighter than yesterday," said Peter Nugent, scientific expert. The senior came from Berkeley Lab, the first to discover the supernova. Nugent also added: "Observing PTF 11kly will be an exciting discovery process. It is a moment of instant universe."

He also believes that supercomputers at the Department of Computer Science Energy Research (NERSC) at the Supercomputing Research Center, Berkeley Lab as well as high-speed network systems have timely detected rare events. This when it happens, record beautiful moments.

The PTF automatic survey machine uses an automatic telescope, acting like a robot, placed on a 48-inch reflecting telescope Samuel Oschin in the Palomar, California astronomical station to observe the night sky. Immediately after observing unusual events, data will be transferred over 400 miles to NERSC through the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network and the US National Science Foundation's DOE's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). At NERSC, computers work, using specialized scientific terms to process data, then identify and track astronomical events in the sky.

In a few hours when identifying PTF 11 kly, this system will automatically send the coordinates needed for telescopes around the world to observe this phenomenon.