A team of students accidently spotted the closest-known exploding star near the "cigar galaxy."
The discovery was made during a "10-minute telescope workshop for undergraduate students." In those 10 minutes the students and Doctor Steve Fossey started a "global scramble" to get more evidence of the nearby supernova, a University College London news release reported.
"The weather was closing in, with increasing cloud," Fossey said. "So instead of the planned practical astronomy class, I gave the students an introductory demonstration of how to use the CCD camera on one of the observatory's automated 0.35-[meter] telescopes."
The students chose to look at the "bright and photogenic galaxy" Messier 82 for their workshop. While adjusting the telescope Fossey noticed what appeared to be a star; it caught the researcher's eye because he had not noticed it during past observations.
After reviewing archived images of the galaxy to confirm the existence of the object the team took a number if one and two minute exposures through filters of different colors.
"It was a surreal and exciting experience taking images of the unidentified object as Steve ran around the observatory verifying the result. I'm very chuffed to have helped in the discovery of the M 82 Supernova," student Guy Pollack said in the news release.
Cloud cover was rapidly moving in, but the researchers managed to capture a good data set before the supernova was obscured.
The team's next step was to determine let other astronomers around the globe know about the discovery in hopes they would help confirm the supernova's existence.
Fossey sent the findings to the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, which keeps track of supernovas.
Researchers believe this is a Type Ia supernova, which occurs when a white dwarf star pulls matter off a nearby star causing it to become unstable and explode.
"One minute we're eating pizza then five minutes later we've helped to discover a supernova. I couldn't believe it. It reminds me why I got interested in astronomy in the first place," student Tom Wright said in a news release.
