Last week, UCL students along with their lecturer, Dr Steve Fossey, discovered one of the closest and brightest supernovae in recent decades.
Their image, taken at the University of London Observatory (UCL’s teaching observatory in North London), showed a bright spot of light on a greyscale image of the galaxy M 82, which was taken through a red filter.
In the following days, Fossey and his colleagues have made additional observations using different coloured filters, allowing them to make a colour composite of the galaxy with its supernova, which is catalogued as SN 2014J.
In this closeup, the arrow points out the location of the supernova, which was caused by an unstable white dwarf star pulling material of a larger neighbour until it exploded.
Photo credit: UCL/University of London Observatory/Steve Fossey/Ian Howarth/Ben Cooke/Guy Pollack/Matthew Wilde/Thomas Wright
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High resolution image
This image can be reproduced freely providing the source is credited
EU Referendum
EU referendum: UCL Provost’s message to students and staff
In light of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, UCL President & Provost Professor Michael Arthur assures UCL students and staff from EU countries that they will continue to be as valued and as welcome as before. Professor Arthur also confirms that there will be no immediate changes to arrangements for EU staff and students.
Open Days
The Faculty participates in a number of open days throughout the academic year, including the UCL Undergraduate Open Days and the UCL Graduate Open Day.
Friends of Out@UCL
Professor Ivan Parkin - Dean, UCL Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
“I fully support the aims of the Friends of Out@UCL campaign. I have personal experience of the need for such a campaign and the difficulties that the LGBTQ+ community face.” Read more…
Snapshots from Space History
Online exhibition of historic space photos from the faculty’s planetary science archives.