10-year-old girl discovers supernova

 a good argument for letting your kids stay up late 
Kathryn Gray
Ten-year-old Kathryn Gray stands next to her father’s telescope at the family’s home in Birdton, N.B., a suburb of Fredericton, on Monday, Jan. 3, 2011. Kathryn is the youngest person to discover a supernova. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada says she made the discovery on the weekend under the watch of two other astronomers. – THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Smith

A 10-year-old girl in Canada has become the youngest person to discover a supernova – an exploding star which can briefly outshine a whole galaxy.

Kathryn Aurora Gray of Fredericton, New Brunswick reported the discovery of a magnitude 17 supernova in galaxy UGC 3378 in the constellation of Camelopardalis, the giraffe, a large but faint constellation in the northern sky. The galaxy was imaged on New Year’s Eve 2010, and the supernova was discovered on January 2, 2011 by Kathryn Aurora Gray and Paul Gray. 

Supernovas are stellar explosions that signal the violent deaths of stars several times more massive than our sun. Supernovas are rare events. The last one in our galaxy occurred several hundred years ago, before the invention of the telescope. The odds of discovery can be increased by repeatedly checking many other galaxies. 

A new supernova reveals itself as a bright point of light that wasn’t there the last time the galaxy was checked. Since a supernova can outshine millions of ordinary stars it is easy to spot with a modest telescope, even in a distant galaxy like UGC 3378 which is about 240 million light-years away. 

Kathryn’s father, Paul Gray, himself an amateur astronomer, helped her make the discovery by taking the steps to rule out asteroids and checking the list of current known supernovas. 

The discovery was then verified by independent astronomers and officially registered, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) said in a statement. “It’s fantastic that someone so young would be passionate about astronomy. What an incredible discovery. We’re all very excited,” said Deborah Thompson of RASC. 

Supernovas are of interest to astronomers because they manufacture most of the chemical elements that went into making the Earth and other planets, says the RASC. Distant supernovas can be used to estimate the size and age of our universe.

Posted by
Find me on Google+

Curriculum vitae

Artist, satirist, and occasional blogger, Andrew has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. He started with squiggles, but they were darned good squiggles if he says so himself. And he will, just ask.
© Copyright Geeky Muse - Designed by Pexeto