SN 2008D update

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a very nice optical image of NGC 2770 with SN 2008D (and last year's SN 2007uy) clearly visible. This NASA press release is the source of the labelled image shown above, which also contains a recent optical image showing the supernovae (although its not quite as pretty as the APOD one).


The Chandra Science Center has a press release on the Chandra observations of SN 2008D. The image on the right is the Chandra image, color-coded to show lower energy X-rays in red, intermediate energy X-rays in green, and higher energy X-rays in blue. SN 2008D is the red blob at the top right.

FYI both SN 2008D and SN 2007uy are type Ib supernova, i.e. massive star progenitors that have exhausted or expelled their hydrogen envelopes prior to exploding.

In unrelated news I am happy to see that my Cycle 17 Hubble archival proposal "Toward Understanding the Fundamental Structure of Superwinds: An Archival Study of Clouds in M82's Wind" has been approved. My thanks go out to all you anonymous reviewers!