Last night Professor Ralph Pass hosted the Hellenic 6th, 7th and 8th graders at the Merrimack College Mendel Observatory. It was a great night to be star gazing - clear skies and still air. Of course, in January, that means it was cold too.
We observed Jupiter and it's four largest moons, The Orion Nebula, a double star pair with one yellow and one blue star, and looked into the center of the Andromeda Galaxy.
In the timing is everything department: we had a special treat last night - we saw the supernova just recently discovered in another galaxy called M82.
As a star ages it begins to use up all it's fuel supply. Eventually the star explodes destroying any planets that might be orbiting it. That’s a supernova and that’s whats happening in Galaxy M82. The power released in a very, very short time makes the supernova brighter than all the other stars in the galaxy. This supernova is about 12 million light years away or about 70,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.
That means the star in question exploded 12 million years ago, and the light is just reaching us now.
Like I said, it was a great night.
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