These are images for the press release associated with the poster "The Type-Ia Supernova 1998bu in M96 and the Hubble Constant" presented by Saurabh Jha, Peter M. Garnavich, Peter M. Challis and Robert P. Kirshner et al. on January 9, 1999 at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, TX.

Image caption: FOR RELEASE January 9, 1999, 9:20am CST

"These images, taken with the Fred L. Whipple Observatory 1.2-m telescope on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, show the galaxy M96, 39 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. The first image shows the galaxy as it was observed on March 14, 1997, while the second was taken on May 18, 1998. The new bright spot in the second image shows supernova 1998bu, the explosion of a star in that galaxy. In the explosion the one star shines almost as brightly as the ten billion stars that make up the galaxy's central region. The third image, taken on November 19, 1998, shows the supernova has faded considerably. By measuring the brightening and fading of this supernova and others like it, astronomers are able to measure distances to galaxies and learn about the expansion of the universe, its age and its ultimate fate. This material was presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, TX on January 9, 1999. Photo credit: Saurabh Jha, Peter M. Challis, Peter M. Garnavich and Robert P. Kirshner."

Epoch 1 image, March 14, 1997. 24bit color TIFF file, 330KB

Epoch 2 image, May 18, 1998. 24bit color TIFF file, 330KB

Epoch 3 image, November 19, 1998. 24bit color TIFF file, 330KB

All images combined (epoch 1 on the left) 24bit color TIFF file, 1MB

Postscript file with images labelled.


Saurabh Jha (sjha@cfa.harvard.edu)