1. Exploding Star Discovered from Ireland

Amateur astronomer and former vice chairman of Astronomy Ireland, David Grennan has discovered the first Irish supernova from his observatory in Raheny, North Dublin. Although Grennan's discovery was made during a search undertaken on September 17th , it is required that a detailed confirmation must follow before being officially announced. Prof. Smartt and his team at Queen’s University Belfast analysed the light coming from the explosion and concluded that this event shows peculiarities which mean this discovery may be of great interest to the scientific community. 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 the Star 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 are naturally pretty dire.

Grennan describes 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."

For more information on this exciting event visit our website at www.astronomy.ie