Discovered by French observer Amédée Riou while inspecting images exposed on May 30, 2011, supernova SN2011dh was reacquired on follow up pictures produced the next night. The find was subsequently confirmed by Thomas Griga, Tom Reiland and Stéphane Lamotte Bailey. The supernova resulted from the collapse of a single massive star at the end of its productive life. This view was obtained on the morning of June 7, 2011.


This image was produced with a RCOS half meter telescope, Apogee Alta U16M camera and Astrodon E-Series filters. Exposure times: 480 minutes Luminance, 120 minutes Red, 120 minutes Green, 120 minutes Blue (All 1X1).

Image copyright ©2011 R Jay GaBany

For the second time in six years, a massive star exploded in the Whirlpool Galaxy. This star system lies about 23 million light-years from Earth toward the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. Actually a pair of galaxies locked in a gravitational embrace, the large spiral's structure resulted when the smaller companion came from behind and passed through its disk, As recently as 50 to 100 million years ago, a subsequent disk passage returned the smaller companion to slightly behind the larger spiral where we see it today.

This image was produced with a RCOS half meter telescope, Apogee Alta U16M camera and Astrodon E-Series filters. Exposure times: 480 minutes Luminance, 120 minutes Red, 120 minutes Green, 120 minutes Blue (All 1X1).

Image copyright ©2011 R Jay GaBany