Credit: ESO/Y. Yang et al.

This image shows the location of the supernova SN 2024ggi in the NGC 3621 galaxy. It was taken on 11 April 2024, just 26 hours after the initial detection of the supernova. The image was obtained with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Among other capabilities, FORS2 allows to obtain spectra in polarised light. This technique, called spectropolarimetry, provides crucial information about the shape of the explosion even though it appears as a single point as seen from Earth. 

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2520b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License