SN 1572 Tycho's Supernova
The red circle visible in the upper left part of the image is SN 1572, often called “Tycho’s Supernova”. In the centre of the image is a star forming nebula of dust and gas, called S175 (in the Sharpless catalog of ionized nebula). This cloud of material is about 3,500 light years away and 35 light-years across. It is being heated by radiation from young hot stars within it, and the dust within the cloud radiates infrared light.
On the left edge of the image, between the Tycho supernova remnant and the very bright star, is an open cluster of stars, King 1, first catalogued by Ivan King, an astronomer at UC Berkeley. This cluster is about 6,000 light-years away, 4 light-years across and is about 2 billion years old.
Also of interest in the lower right of the image is a cluster of very red sources. Almost all of these sources have no counterparts in visible light images, and only some have been catalogued by previous infrared surveys.
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SN 1572SN 1572 war eine am 11. November 1572 im Sternbild Cassiopeia erschienene galaktische Supernova des Typs Ia. Sie erreichte eine Helligkeit von −4 mag. SN 1572 wurde von Tycho Brahe umfangreich beschrieben. Er prägte auch den Begriff „Nova“, weil er sie für einen neuen Stern hielt. Mit dieser ersten Beobachtung einer Supernova von europäischen Astronomen war gezeigt, dass auch die Fixsterne nicht unveränderlich sind. .. weiterlesen