Supernova 2013df in NGC 4414
The spiral galaxy to the left of center in this picture is聽. 聽It is about 62 million lightyears away from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. 聽On June 8th astronomers in Italy noted a new bright star in the galaxy just to the left of the center in this image. 聽A spectrum obtained by the Keck II telescope in Hawaii two days later confirmed this was a star many times the mass of the Sun that had exploded as a supernova. 聽The spectrum is a little odd since it has no emission lines that are typical of a supernova of this type. 聽聽is following this supernova as part of our ongoing NSF project to study聽.
The images combined to make this picture were taken in three filters:聽聽.聽 The separate images were combined to create this color picture.
