© HETDiscovery of Supernova 2012ha, the bright spot in the image at the edge of a galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, was confirmed by a spectrogram obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory. The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams of the International Astronomical Union officially designated the Type 1a discovery as Supernova 2012ha.
Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova.
A supernova discovered Feb. 6 exploded about 450 million years ago, said Farley Ferrante, a graduate student at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who made the initial observation.
The exploding star is in a relatively empty portion of the sky labeled "anonymous" in the faint constellation Canes Venatici. Home to a handful of galaxies, Canes Venatici is near the constellation Ursa Major, best known for the Big Dipper.
A second supernova discovered Nov. 20 exploded about 230 million years ago, said Ferrante, who made the initial observation. That exploding star is in one of the many galaxies of the Virgo constellation.
Both supernovae were spotted with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment's robotic telescope ROTSE3b, which is now operated by SMU graduate students. ROTSE3b is at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains of West Texas near Fort Davis.
The supernova that exploded about 450 million years ago is officially designated Supernova 2013X. It occurred when life on Earth consisted of creatures in the seas and oceans and along coastlines. Following naming conventions for supernova, Supernova 2013X was nicknamed "Everest" by Govinda Dhungana, an SMU graduate student who participated in the discovery.
The supernova that exploded about 230 million years ago is officially designated Supernova 2012ha. The light from that explosion has been en route to Earth since the Triassic geologic period, when dinosaurs roamed the planet. "That's fairly recent as these explosions go," Ferrante said. Dhungana gave the nickname "Sherpa" to Supernova 2012ha.