Hubble shares a new picture of NGC 941 spiral galaxies: supernovae discovered by amateur astronomers become the focus

CTOnews.com NASA and ESA have teamed up to capture images of a spiral galaxy called NGC 941 using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope.

CTOnews.com Note: NGC 941 is a very faint galaxy in the constellation Cetus, 55 million light-years from Earth. It is basically elliptical in shape and has a relatively large nucleus.

Although Hubble's image of spiral galaxies is beautiful, astronomers are more concerned about SN 2005ad, a supernova discovered a few years ago.

Discovered by amateur astronomer Yukiichi Itagaki, the supernova was confirmed by follow-up observations by professional astronomers as a hydrogen-rich supernova, also known as a Type II supernova.

The discovery of SN 2005ad shows the importance amateur astronomers play in astronomical discoveries and is an important "assistant" to professional astronomers.

The astronomical community has established online systems for amateur astronomers to report identification events, which are then tracked and catalogued by professional astronomers.