UMass Lowell Students’ Supernova Discovery Contributes to Global Astronomy Research

In May 2023, a supernova was discovered by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki in the Pinwheel Galaxy, 21 million lightyears away. This rare phenomenon, caused by the collapse of a star with a mass at least eight times larger than Earth’s sun, led scientists worldwide on a mission to understand its nature.

Three undergraduate students from UMass Lowell, Jacob Medin, Ian Davis, and Jordan Orenberg, funded by the Kennedy College of Sciences’ Science Discoveries program, dedicated their summer to studying the supernova. Under the guidance of Physics Assoc. Prof. Silas Laycock and Physics Ph.D. student Sayantan Bhattacharya ’21, the students learned to operate the UMass Lowell Schueller Observatory and captured images of the supernova using its powerful telescope.

In addition to their work at UMass Lowell, the students collaborated with the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston to obtain more images of the supernova. They then analyzed these images using AstroImageJ software to track changes in magnitude over three months as they observed the supernova’s brightness and temperature changing. The data collected by these aspiring scientists is now publicly available through the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), allowing astronomers worldwide to access and study it.

Jordan Orenberg expressed his excitement about contributing to our understanding of supernovas and sharing their data with the scientific community through their hard work and dedication during their summer project at UMass Lowell. These students have made valuable contributions to astronomy that will further our knowledge of these fascinating cosmic events.