SALT LAKE CITY — Patrick Wiggins, NASA's ambassador to Utah, has discovered his 10th supernova — a milestone he celebrates not as a NASA representative, but as an amateur astronomer.
Wiggins said supernovas are discovered regularly, but typically by large institutions and well-known professional astronomers, not amateurs.
"But a supernova, when it goes, it's like it's there one day and the next day, boom, it's completely gone and can even get so bright that it outshines the entire galaxy," Wiggins said.
The supernova is 40 to 50 million light years away, meaning the stellar explosion actually occurred 40 to 50 million years ago.
Wiggins described the moment of discovery as a visual back-and-forth between images — one showing nothing, the next revealing a new dot of light.
"But occasionally, boom, suddenly you're seeing the picture of the old one, nothing there. The next one comes up, there's a dot. Nothing there. Oh, there's a dot back and forth, back and forth, and that's what usually calls one's attention to it," Wiggins said.
Since the discovery, Wiggins has received congratulatory emails from around the world. He invites anyone who wants to share in his astronomical experiences to visit the Stansbury Park Observatory on Saturday nights.
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