Congrats to Dave Grennan on his SN discovery.

Hi,

Congratulations to Dave on his discovery of a supernova in UGC 112 last September (mag 18.7) which has been confirmed recently.

John
Director, Variable Star Observers Group

Well done Dave

Keith..

Congratulations Dave, Very well deserved.
This is the first SN discovery from Ireland.

Eamonn A

www.kingslandobservatory.com

October is a good month for Irish Astronomers. Hot on the heels of his asteroid discovery in October 2008 and March 2009, Dave Grennan has done it yet again in 2010!

This is the first Supernova discovery from Ireland - yes, Irish astronomy is alive and thriving. From a personal point of view, I can't think of a better reward for all the effort Dave has put in over the years - the work he has done for Amateur Astronomy in Ireland has been immense. The help he gives selflessly to other amateurs is comendable. So, his first, and Ireland's first, Supernova discovery is a just reward indeed. Many many congratulations Dave!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away a star exploded. 290 million years later the light from this exploding star known as a ‘Supernova’ was discovered by amateur astronomer David Grennan from his observatory in Raheny, North Dublin. This is the first time such a discovery has been made from Ireland.

Supernovae represent the cataclysmic failure of a star. Such explosions are unimaginably violent and not only represent the end of life for a Sun just like ours, but also a catastrophic end for any planets which may orbit this star. The consequences for any beings living on a planet where the parent star explodes like are naturally pretty dire.

Grennan’s discovery has yet to be named by the International Astronomical Union. Although his discovery was made during a search undertaken on September 17th , it is required that detailed confirmation must follow before being official announced.

“My initial discovery was confirmed by colleagues in the UK however more confirmation was required before the discovery could be announced” said Grennan.

Prof. Stephen Smartt and his team at Queen’s University Belfast analysed the light coming from the explosion using the 2.5metre Nordic Optical Telescope at La Palma in the Canaries. Prof. Smartt and his team confirmed the discovery as a ”type 1b/c” supernova meaning that the explosion was caused by one star ripping material from another. Prof. Smartt concluded that his analysis of this event shows it has peculiarities which mean this discovery may be of great interest to the scientific community.

Grennan goes on to describe his feelings following the find:

“Naturally I’m very excited at having made this discovery, especially since it’s a first for Ireland. I find myself wondering if there were some poor souls living on planets surrounding the star when it exploded. One thing is for sure, we’ll never know. The apparent unusual nature of this event makes it doubly exciting. It will be weeks and months before we know exactly what the true nature of this object is. Because of the vast distances involved this explosion took place over 290 million years ago, long before even the first dinosaurs walked the earth."





Copyright Dave Grennan

eansbro wrote:

Congratulations Dave, Very well deserved.
This is the first SN discovery from Ireland.

Eamonn A

Eamonn - am I right in recalling that you discovered a Nova from Ireland a while back?

Thats excellent news. Well done Dave !!!