Kepler's Supernova
-2.5 may
4 '
About 6 kpc about 20,000 light years
Milky Way
Type Ia
Ilario Altobelli and Raffaello Gualterotti
V843 Oph • 3C 358 • IRAS 17276-2126
The Supernova 1604 ( SN1604 ), Kepler's supernova or star called Kepler, was a galactic supernova ( 20,000 light years ) exploded in 1604 in about 6,000 parsecs away in the constellation Ophiuchus ( Ophiuchus ). With an apparent magnitude of -2.5 m, it was the brightest star in the night sky. She was previously the last supernova observed in the Milky Way. These were a thermonuclear supernova of type Ia.
History
The supernova was first observed on October 9, 1604 Ilario Altobelli in Verona and Raffaello Gualterotti in Florence. On October 10, they observed Baldassare Capra, Simon Marius and Camillo Sasso in Padua. Galileo Galilei, then a professor at the University of Padua, she saw for the first time on 28 October. Due to the great general interest he held three public lectures on the phenomenon.
On October 10, the supernova was discovered in China, a few days later in Korea. The Chinese and Korean astronomers have left detailed records of their systematic observations over nearly a year.
The astronomer Johannes Kepler observed the supernova for the first time on 17 October and has written subsequent to the appearance and disappearance of Nova first a concise written in German script to explain the phenomenon. He later wrote a detailed, written in Latin investigation in the book De Stella nova in pede Serpentarii ( "On the new star in the foot of Ophiuchus "). Its detailed description is also the reason why the object was named after him, although he had not discovered it first.
Initially, the " new star " was as bright as Mars, after a few days even brighter than Jupiter, he reached an estimated maximum of -2.5 mag. As of November 1604, the supernova was in the twilight no longer visible, as it was seen in January 1605 in the night sky again, she was still brighter than Antares. It was observed for the last time by Kepler on 8 October 1605 was therefore seen almost exactly one year.
The nature of the object
The supernova in 1604 aroused great interest because they coincided with a grand conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in addition, which had been calculated for 8 October 1604. The supernova was therefore considered by many as a product of this conjunction. Observations in Italy and Northern Europe suggested due to the lack of parallax, that it had to be an object beyond the moon as with the only 32 years previously observed supernova of 1572. The appearance of another new celestial body beyond the Moon's orbit finally shook the faith of the Aristotelian cosmology, according to which the spheres of the planets and fixed stars were steady.
Because of the reconstructed from historical data light curve, we now know that there must have been a supernova of type Ia.
The supernova remnant
In the year 1941, with the 100 -inch telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in the expected location, a faint nebula with a brightness of around 19 likes discovered, where it is the remnant of the supernova of 1604. In visible light, only a few filaments are seen, but the supernova remnant is a strong radio source. The diameter is about 4 arc minutes. The distance of the object is not known exactly and, depending on the underlying model -laid between 3 and more than 7 kpc ( 10000-23000 light years).