🔭 Deep Field (~2.1′ FOV) · Highest-Definition Optical Field (0.25″/pix)
● SN2023ixf Explosion Site
High-magnification deep optical view into SN2023ixf's host environment. Pan and scroll to explore the cosmic neighborhood where this star exploded.
★ Benchmark Astrophysical Landmark
SN2023ixf is recognized as one of the definitive benchmark supernovae in modern astrophysics. Due to its exceptional peak luminosity, favorable host galaxy orientation, and rapid multi-messenger follow-up, it was extensively observed across the electromagnetic spectrum by premier facilities—including space telescopes (HST, JWST, Swift) and global ground-based spectroscopic networks. It provides foundational empirical constraints for stellar progenitor models, ejecta dynamics, and cosmological distance calibrations.
⚡ Quick Observer Facts & Telemetry
IAU Transients DB🌐 Distance to Earth
~21 Million Light-Years
Lookback Cosmic Time
✨ Peak Brightness
Mag 12.02
Medium Scope (8-inch)
☀️ Peak Radiance
167.5 million Suns
Combined Stellar Energy
🚀 Shock Velocity
~240 km/s
~0.1% Speed of Light
🌌 Host Galaxy
M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5457)
Offset: 264.2″ (PA 121°) (~4.38 kpc)″
🧭 Constellation
Canes Venatici
The Hunting Dogs
💥 Explosion Physics
Type II
Core-Collapse Supergiant
📅 Discovered On
2023/05/19
Koichi Itagaki
HISTORIC BENCHMARK • PINWHEEL GALAXY (M101)
The Brightest Core-Collapse Supernova of the Decade
On May 19, 2023, legendary Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered a luminous transient shining at magnitude 14.9 in an outer spiral arm of the famous Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101). Designated SN 2023ixf, it rapidly brightened to magnitude 10.8—becoming the brightest and closest core-collapse supernova seen from Earth in over a decade!
★ Landmark Dossier: SN 2023ixf
Discoverer: Koichi Itagaki (Yamagata, Japan) •
Host Galaxy: Messier 101 (Pinwheel Galaxy) •
Distance: ~21 Million Light-Years •
Type: Type II Core-Collapse Supernova •
Peak Apparent Magnitude: m = +10.8 (Easily Visible in 4-Inch Telescopes)
Thousands of amateur astrophotographers and professional observatories worldwide swung their telescopes toward M101. Crucially, pre-discovery images showed that the progenitor was an evolved red supergiant star with an initial mass of approximately 12 to 15 solar masses, surrounded by an extremely dense cocoon of circumstellar material shed in the final months before detonation.
SHOCK BREAKOUT & CIRCUMSTELLAR INTERACTION
Flash Spectroscopy and the Star's Final Gasps
Within hours of discovery, ultra-rapid "flash spectroscopy" captured narrow emission lines of highly ionized hydrogen, helium, carbon, and nitrogen. These spectral features revealed that during the final years of its life, the red supergiant had undergone intense mass eruptions, ejecting solar masses of gas that enveloped the star.
When the core collapsed and the supersonic blast wave broke out through the star's surface at over 10,000 km/s, it slammed into this circumstellar cocoon, creating bright ultraviolet and soft X-ray emission monitored in real-time by NASA's Swift and NuSTAR space observatories.
BACKYARD ASTRONOMER EXPERIENCE
Observing the Pinwheel Galaxy Blast
SN 2023ixf was a global astronomical sensation, observed visually by amateur stargazers in modest 4-inch to 8-inch backyard telescopes.
Located in Ursa Major at RA 14:03:38.562, Dec +54:18:41.94, it is circumpolar for most northern observers,
and continues to be monitored as it fades along its radioactive ⁵⁶Co decay tail.
Can I see it tonight? No — this supernova is physically extinguished.
Supernovae are brief, explosive cosmic catastrophes. They brighten over days to weeks and then permanently fade into darkness as their radioactive nickel-56 and cobalt-56 fuel decays. This explosion occurred 3.3 years ago (2023/06/23). Accounting for cosmological time dilation at redshift z = 0.0008, the rest-frame age is +1206.0 days. By standard radioactive decay templates, its optical brightness has decayed by Δm ≈ 12.9 magnitudes to an estimated magnitude 24.9, rendering the transient undetectable to all ground-based observatories.
Instrument Breakdown: At its maximum brightness in 2023/06/23, it reached magnitude 12.02 (Medium Amateur Scope (8"–12")). Tonight, pointing a telescope at these coordinates will reveal only the background host galaxy (M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5457)).
| Instrument Class & Aperture | Sensitivity Limit | At Peak Maximum (m=12.02) | Tonight (Est. m≈24.9) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naked Eye Dark sky site (Bortle 1–3) with no optical aid |
m ≤ 6.0 | ❌ Below limit | ❌ Below limit |
| Binoculars (50mm) Standard 7x50 or 10x50 handheld binoculars |
m ≤ 9.5 | ❌ Below limit | ❌ Below limit |
| Small Backyard Scope (4" / 100mm) Entry 4-inch (100mm) refractor / reflector |
m ≤ 12.0 | ❌ Below limit | ❌ Below limit |
| Medium Amateur Scope (8"–12") 8-inch to 12-inch Dobsonian or Schmidt-Cassegrain |
m ≤ 14.5 | ✅ Detectable | ❌ Below limit |
| Amateur CMOS Rig Cooled monochrome/color CMOS camera with multi-hour stack |
m ≤ 19.5 | ✅ Detectable | ❌ Below limit |
| 2m–3m Research Telescope University or regional observatory (e.g. Palomar 60", Calar Alto) |
m ≤ 22.0 | ✅ Detectable | ❌ Below limit |
| Giant 8m–10m Observatories Keck (10m), VLT (8.2m), Gemini, Subaru optical imaging |
m ≤ 25.0 | ✅ Detectable | ✅ Detectable |
| Space Observatories Only Hubble Space Telescope (WFC3) / JWST (NIRCam deep stack) |
m ≤ 30.0 | ✅ Detectable | ✅ Detectable |
🌌 Cosmic Neighbors & Contemporaries
110,222+ Transients Indexed
Cataloged supernovae closest to SN2023ixf in discovery time, spatial sky neighborhood, and cosmological lookback epoch:
⏱️ Closest in Time
SN2023iwy
Exploded same day
Type Ic-BL
2023/05/19
AT2023ivk
1d before
Type CV
2023/05/18
AT2023iwn
1d before
Type QSO
2023/05/18
❓ Frequently Asked Questions About SN2023ixf
Scientific & observational Q&As indexed from astronomical databases & the Open Supernova Catalog
What type of supernova is SN2023ixf and what kind of star exploded? Astrophysics & Progenitor
SN2023ixf is a Type II Core-Collapse Supernova, marking the death of an evolved red supergiant star (with an initial mass between 8 and 25 times our Sun) that preserved its vast outer hydrogen envelope. Having exhausted all nuclear fuel through successive stages of fusion (hydrogen, helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, and silicon), its inert iron core could no longer withstand gravitational pressure. In less than a quarter of a second, the iron core collapsed into nuclear density, triggering a catastrophic outward shockwave that blasted the star's outer layers into interstellar space.
What was the progenitor star doing in the millions of years leading up to SN2023ixf? Astrophysics & Progenitor
Before detonating as SN2023ixf, the progenitor lived a short, furious stellar life of roughly 10 to 30 million years. In its interior, temperatures and pressures reached astronomical extremes, burning through nuclear fuel in an 'onion-skin' arrangement of concentric shells: hydrogen burning into helium for millions of years, helium into carbon for hundreds of thousands of years, carbon into neon for centuries, oxygen into silicon for months, and silicon fusing into iron in mere days! Once iron filled the core, fusion could no longer extract energy, dooming the star to sudden gravitational collapse.
How far away is SN2023ixf from Earth and how old is the light reaching us? Cosmic Distance & Time
SN2023ixf is located approximately ~21 Million Light-Years from Earth (cosmological redshift z = 0.0008, luminosity distance d_L = 3.54). Because electromagnetic radiation travels at 299,792 km/s, the photons detected by modern telescopes began their cosmic voyage 11.5 million years ago during the Miocene epoch as mammalian lineages and grasslands flourished. While that light traveled across intergalactic space, Earth's continents shifted and biological evolution shaped the history of our planet.
What does the cosmological redshift of SN2023ixf tell us about the expansion of space? Cosmic Distance & Time
SN2023ixf exhibits a measured spectroscopic redshift of z = 0.0008. Under Hubble's Law, this redshift corresponds to an apparent recessional velocity of approximately 239.8 km/s away from our Milky Way galaxy. This redshift is not motion through space alone, but the stretching of light waves as the fabric of the universe itself expanded during the millions of years the photons traveled to our telescopes.
How bright did SN2023ixf become at its peak, and how many Suns does that equal? Explosion Energetics
At peak brightness, SN2023ixf achieved an apparent magnitude of 12.02 around 2023/06/23. Corrected for cosmic distance and foreground interstellar dust, its intrinsic absolute magnitude was -15.73. At this peak, the exploding star radiated with the incandescent brilliance of approximately 167.5 million Suns combined, briefly outshining the cumulative starlight of entire dwarf galaxies!
How much total energy was released by SN2023ixf, and where did that energy go? Explosion Energetics
The collapse of SN2023ixf's progenitor released a staggering 10⁵³ ergs of gravitational binding energy—more energy than our Sun will radiate across its entire 10-billion-year lifespan! Astonishingly, 99% of this titanic energy was emitted within 10 seconds in the form of trillions of nearly massless neutrinos. Only about 1% (10⁵¹ ergs) drove the physical kinetic blast wave, and a mere 0.01% (10⁴⁹ ergs) was radiated as the visible starlight observed by telescopes.
How fast are the supernova ejecta and shockwave of SN2023ixf expanding through space? Explosion Energetics
The debris and shockwave of SN2023ixf erupted into space at an astounding velocity of approximately 240 km/s (measured spectroscopically). This corresponds to roughly 0.1% of the speed of light (Mach 699 in air)! At this blistering speed, the expanding debris shell traverses the entire diameter of planet Earth in just 53.16 seconds, carving a giant bubble in the interstellar medium.
What powers the prolonged glow of SN2023ixf weeks and months after detonation? Radioactive Engine
While the initial flash of SN2023ixf was driven by shock breakout heating through the stellar envelope, its prolonged visibility over weeks and months was sustained by the radioactive decay of approximately 0.05 to 0.15 solar masses of Nickel-56 (⁵⁶Ni) forged in the core shock. As ⁵⁶Ni decays into ⁵⁶Co (half-life: 6.1 days) and then into stable ⁵⁶Fe (half-life: 77.2 days), gamma rays and positrons thermalize within the expanding ejecta, preventing the debris from instantly freezing in the vacuum of space.
What chemical elements did SN2023ixf create and disperse into the universe? Nucleosynthesis & Elements
Core-collapse supernovae like SN2023ixf are the primary creators of life-sustaining elements in the cosmos. The explosion manufactured and dispersed immense reservoirs of oxygen (the single most abundant heavy element in the universe), alongside carbon, nitrogen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and calcium (which builds terrestrial bones and teeth). In the ultra-dense, neutron-rich shockwave, rapid neutron capture (r-process nucleosynthesis) forged heavy elements like gold, platinum, and uranium.
Did SN2023ixf leave behind a black hole, a neutron star, or nothing at all? Cosmic Remnant
The crushing core collapse of SN2023ixf's progenitor forged an ultra-dense compact stellar remnant at the center of the detonation. If the progenitor had an initial mass under ~20 solar masses, it left behind a neutron star (pulsar)—packing the mass of our entire Sun into a city-sized sphere barely 20 kilometers wide, spinning dozens or hundreds of times per second. If the progenitor exceeded ~25–30 solar masses, gravity overcame neutron degeneracy pressure, creating a permanent stellar-mass black hole.
What will SN2023ixf's explosion site look like in 1,000 to 10,000 years? Cosmic Remnant
Over the coming millennia, the explosion site of SN2023ixf will undergo three dramatic evolutionary epochs: During the next few centuries (Free Expansion phase), the ejecta shell will continue expanding at thousands of km/s. Between 500 and 10,000 years (the Sedov-Taylor adiabatic phase), the forward shock will sweep up hundreds of solar masses of interstellar gas, heating it to tens of millions of degrees and glowing in bright thermal X-rays (similar to the famous Cygnus Loop or Cassiopeia A). Eventually, the cooling shock will compress nearby giant molecular clouds, triggering the gravitational collapse of new stars and solar systems!
In which galaxy did SN2023ixf explode, and where is it located relative to the galactic center? Galactic Environment
SN2023ixf occurred in M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5457), located at an offset of 264.2″ (PA 121°) (~4.38 kpc)″ from the galactic nucleus. In optical and infrared imaging, this positions the explosion within the galaxy's active stellar disk or spiral arms, where ongoing star formation constantly generates massive short-lived stellar progenitors.
Where is SN2023ixf located in the night sky and which constellation is it in? Sky Coordinates
In the celestial sphere, SN2023ixf is located at Right Ascension 14:03:38.562 and Declination +54:18:41.94, situated in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). Because its declination is +54:18:41.94, it is primarily placed in the Northern celestial hemisphere.
How much Milky Way interstellar dust obscures our view of SN2023ixf? Interstellar Dust
Light from SN2023ixf passed through interstellar dust in the Milky Way, suffering a foreground color excess of E(B-V) = 0.008 magnitudes (based on Schlafly & Finkbeiner 2011 galactic recalibrations). This cosmic dust absorbs and scatters shorter blue wavelengths, dimming the transient by approximately A_V ≈ 0.02 magnitudes in visual light.
Across which photometric filter bands was SN2023ixf monitored? Astronomical Observations
SN2023ixf was tracked across 110 photometric observations across a baseline of 993.2 days utilizing filter bands including
Clear, g, r. Data were captured by observatories and survey networks including ZTF. Multi-color photometry tracks the temperature evolution of the fireball, verifying the rise time to peak and the rate of radioactive decline.What did astronomical spectroscopy reveal about SN2023ixf's chemical makeup? Astronomical Observations
Astronomers obtained 5 spectroscopic epochs for SN2023ixf from 3500.0 Å to 9670.5 Å by facilities including Bok, LT, MMT. Optical spectroscopy provides the definitive physical fingerprint of the transient: P-Cygni line profiles reveal the expansion speed of the ejecta, while characteristic absorption features (such as hydrogen Balmer lines Hα/Hβ in Type II, or Si II λ6355 in Type Ia) identify the stellar composition and physical mechanism of the explosion.
Who discovered SN2023ixf and how was it first detected? Discovery & History
SN2023ixf was officially reported on 2023/05/19 by Koichi Itagaki. Discoveries are typically flagged by high-cadence robotic survey telescopes (such as ATLAS, ZTF, Pan-STARRS, ASAS-SN, or Gaia) and worldwide amateur astronomers scanning the night sky, followed by rapid spectroscopic classification by international observatories.
How many scientific publications and observatories have contributed data to SN2023ixf? Scientific Research
SN2023ixf is documented across 7 scientific references and archival data sources in the Open Supernova Catalog. These include discovery circulars and research datasets from Transient Name Server, 2023TNSTR1158....1I, The Open Supernova Catalog, ALeRCE / ZTF. All raw photometry and spectroscopy points are cross-indexed to their original bibliographic records for peer-reviewed verification.
What other names and survey identifiers exist for SN2023ixf? Cross-Identifications
Throughout global alert streams and survey databases, SN2023ixf has also been designated as:
2023ixf, PS23dij, AT2023ixf, ATLAS23ncx, SN 2023ixf, ZTF23aaklqou, MASTER OT J140338.55+541840.8, MASTER OT J140338.60+541842.0. These cross-matched identifiers allow astronomers to cross-reference observations across the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), Pan-STARRS, Gaia Photometric Science Alerts, and the IAU Transient Name Server (TNS).How does SN2023ixf contribute to measuring the Hubble Constant and the scale of the cosmos? Cosmology & Distance Ladder
As a core-collapse supernova, SN2023ixf provides independent cosmological distance calibrations via the Expanding Photosphere Method (EPM) and the Standard Candle Method for Type II supernovae (SCM-II). By correlating the physical expansion speed of the photosphere (measured via spectroscopic Doppler shifts) with its photometric color temperature, astronomers determine direct geometric distances independent of secondary distance ladders.
Could gravitational waves or neutrinos from SN2023ixf be detected on Earth? Multi-Messenger Astronomy
Core-collapse supernovae like SN2023ixf are premier targets for multi-messenger astrophysics! During the collapse of the iron core, an intense burst of 10⁵⁸ neutrinos escaped into space hours before the shock broke out through the stellar surface (as famously seen in SN 1987A). Furthermore, violent core asymmetries and non-axisymmetric core bounce can emit high-frequency gravitational waves detectable by advanced interferometers (LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA) for events within the Milky Way and Local Group.
How does SN2023ixf compare to famous historical supernovae like SN 1987A or the Crab Supernova? Historical Comparison
Compared to historical landmarks like SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (168,000 light-years away, naked-eye peak m = 2.9) or the Crab Supernova of 1054 (6,500 light-years away), SN2023ixf occurred at a distance of ~21 Million Light-Years. While historical naked-eye supernovae occurred within our Milky Way or its immediate satellites, modern discoveries like SN2023ixf allow astrophysicists to probe diverse galactic environments, metallicities, and stellar populations across the broader universe.
Can I see SN2023ixf tonight with a backyard telescope or binoculars? Backyard Observation
SN2023ixf exploded 3.3 years ago (2023/05/19). Optical transient emission has completely faded along its radioactive decay curve. Today, pointing a telescope at these coordinates reveals the expanding remnant nebula or M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5457); the original optical transient is no longer detectable with amateur backyard equipment.
Does the radiation or shockwave from SN2023ixf pose any threat to Earth? Planetary Safety
No, Earth is in zero danger. Supernovae are violent events emitting powerful gamma rays, X-rays, and cosmic rays; however, the astrophysical 'lethal kill zone' for our planet's protective ozone layer is estimated at 50 to 100 light-years. At a distance of ~21 Million Light-Years, the inverse-square law dilutes the radiation by quintillions of times, making SN2023ixf completely harmless to our biosphere and purely a fascinating spectacle for human exploration.
Data sourced from IAU TNS, ALeRCE, WISeREP, and the Open Supernova Catalog.
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