NASA Announces Newest Supernova Found

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The supernova known as G1.9+0.3 is the newest supernova ever found by NASA in its search with Chandra X-ray telescope and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array The supernova was not visible with optical telescopes due to the region in which it occurred being near the center of the Galaxy and was obscured by the high energy formation in that region.

Cassiopeia A. was previously the last known supernova in our galaxy and occurred around 1680, an estimate based on the expansion of its remnant,

The youngest supernova NASA found was first notice in 1985 but was a very faint object in the sky, and was thought to have occurred 400-1000 years ago. After 22 years and being able to use the Chandra X Ray telescope, NASA was able to deduce from the rate of expansion a more precise age for the event and placed it at 140 years ago.
The age was confirmed by new radio observations from the Very Large Array telescope and the supernova may be even younger than thought if it is found to have been slowing down.

"No other object in the galaxy has properties like this," said Stephen Reynolds of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who led the Chandra study.. "This find is extremely important for learning more about how some stars explode and what happens in the aftermath."

The existence of such a young supernova offers the possibility of more study with both the Chandra and Very Large Array to gather more information on the formation and life cycle of supernova's.

One thing is for certain, more information is upcoming, and studies of the high expansion velocities and extreme particle energies of this event are sure to yield more questions than answers.