M51 M51 or M-51 may refer to:
* M-51 (Michigan highway), a state highway in Michigan
* M51 highway (Russia)
* M51 (Cape Town), a Metropolitan Route in Cape Town, South Africa
* M51 Skysweeper, an anti-aircraft gun
* M51 MACI mine
* M51 SLBM, a Fre ...
, known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. It was a type II-P core-collapse supernova, discovered June 28, 2005 by Wolfgang Kloehr, a German amateur astronomer. The event was positioned at an offset of west and south of the galactic nucleus of M51. Based on the data, the explosion was inferred to occur 2.8 days before discovery. It was considered under-luminous for a supernova of its type, releasing an estimated in energy.
The progenitor star was identified from a
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
image taken January 20–21, 2005. It was a
red supergiant
Red supergiants (RSGs) are stars with a supergiant luminosity class ( Yerkes class I) of spectral type K or M. They are the largest stars in the universe in terms of volume, although they are not the most massive or luminous. Betelgeuse and Ant ...
with a
spectral type
In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the ...
late
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
ZAMS
Zams is a municipality in the district of Landeck in the Austrian state of Tyrol.
Geography
The Inn River runs through Zams, which is situated in the river's basin together with its neighbour town Landeck. The geographical location is . Here, th ...
) mass of . A higher mass star enshrouded in a cocoon of dust has been ruled out.