Have You Seen This? Sandy astrophotographer captures the expansion of a supernova

SANDY — I have wondered at photos from the Hubble Space Telescope throughout my life. To learn from the following video that similar photos and discoveries can now be taken in a local backyard — for people who can invest in the right equipment — is exciting.

Jason Birch, an astrophotographer who runs the YouTube channel SpacebyJace, is learning and documenting astrology from his Utah backyard.

He created a photo of the Crab Nebula, or Messier 1 — the subject of one of the famous Hubble Space Telescope images — that shows the supernova remnant is expanding. Birch says in the video that the Hubble image has blown his mind since before he got into astrophotography.

His image is a compilation of several hundred five-minute exposures, stacked and pretty closely duplicating that photo. He lined up the star pattern of both photos and you can see the nebula’s growth as it has moved to cover up additional stars.

This YouTube video is basically a really cool science lesson. Birch explains the nebula is the remnant of a supernova from less than 1,000 years ago, following the death of a star eight to 10 times larger than the sun. It is currently expanding at 3.3 million miles per hour, so the slight change seen in the photo represents 780 billion miles of gradual growth over the last 26 years.

If you aren’t interested in the science lesson — looking at the beautiful patterns that can be found in space through these photos is still worth your time.

And, if you need more space after seeing this, as I did, NASA just released a new Hubble photo on Tuesday, Feb. 10, showing the egg nebula’s dying star.

Have You Seen This?