Tuesday, Jun 11, 2024

A type II Supernova was discovered on April 11, 2024, by ATLAS in NGC3621. The new transient was mag. 18.915 at the discovery, but it’s rapidly rising. I took this picture from 7 to 10 of May 2024 from my home observatory on Araraquara/SP in Brazil. Today it’s the brightest SN discovered this year and the closest to Earth since SN 2023ixf, discovered on May 19, 2023. NGC 3621 is a field spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 22 million light-years in the constellation Hydra. The galaxy has a diameter of about 93,000 light-years (29,000 pc) and is inclined at an angle of 25° relative to the edge-on view. The image is the sum of 450 sub-frames of 120". A supernova is an extremely powerful explosion that occurs at the end of a massive star's life. During this explosion, the star releases a tremendous amount of energy and shines brightly, sometimes even brighter than an entire galaxy. This event can create heavy elements and scatter interstellar material, influencing the formation of new stars and planets.