Supernovae SN 2021hpr and SN 2021do in NGC 3147 galaxy: an image – 5 Apr. 2021
Supernovae SN 2021hpr andSN 2021do are showing together in the same galaxy, NGC 3147. This is not happening every night and we are happy to share this rare sight with you.
Supernovae SN 2021hpr and SN 2021do inNGC 3147 galaxy: 5 Apr. 2021.
The image above comes from the average of seven, 3120-second exposures, unfiltered, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The two supernovae are indicated by an arrow in the upper left inset.
This is the first time we imaged something similar. From time to time, the same galaxy shows more than a supernova at a glance, as in this case. We imaged SN 2021do while it was alone, last Feb. It is funny that such a rare combo is showing while SN 2021cah and SN 2021 dpu are also shining in the same field of view (but in two different galaxies).
We estimated SN 2021hpr as bright as mag. 15.5 (unfiltered, R-mags for the reference stars from the Gaia DR2 star catalogue). SN 2021do is now too faint to be carefully measured. The host galaxy is the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 3147, placed at about 120 millions of light years from us. SN 2021hpr was discovered on 2 Apr. 2021 by Koichi Itagaki, while SN 2021do was discovered on 2 Jan. 2021 by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey : they resulted to be type Ia and Ia?/c? supernovae, respectively.
Further observations will follow, weather permitting.
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