SN 2005gl was a

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

in the barred-spiral galaxy

NGC 266 NGC 266 is a massive barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. NGC 266 is located at a distance of from the Milky Way. It was discovered on September 12, 1784, by William Herschel. The form of this barred galaxy is described by its mor ...

. It was discovered using CCD frames taken October 5, 2005, from the 60 cm automated telescope at the Puckett Observatory in Georgia, US, and reported by Tim Puckett in collaboration with Peter Ceravolo. It was independently identified by Yasuo Sano in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The supernova was located 29.8″ east and 16.7″ north of the galactic core. Based upon its spectrum, this was classified as a Type IIn core-collapse supernova. It has a

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in f ...

of ''z'' = 0.016, which is the same as the host galaxy. Using archived images from the Hubble Space Telescope, a candidate progenitor star was identified. This is believed to have been a

luminous blue variable Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are massive evolved stars that show unpredictable and sometimes dramatic variations in their spectra and brightness. They are also known as S Doradus variables after S Doradus, one of the brightest stars of the Larg ...

(LBV), similar to Eta Carinae, with an absolute magnitude of −10.3 and a surface temperature of about 13,000 K. There was a small probability that the source was instead located in a compact cluster of stars, but the association with the LBV has since been reliably established.

References

External links

Light curves and spectra
on th
Open Supernova Catalog
* * {{cite news , author=Villard, Ray, author2=Gal-Yam, Avishay , title=Hubble Uncovers an Unusual Stellar Progenitor to a Supernova , publisher=Hubble News Center , date=2009-03-22 , url=http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/13/ , accessdate=2009-04-20 Supernovae Luminous blue variables Pisces (constellation)