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LEDA 22057 is a galaxy located 650 million light-years away in the constellation Gemini, recently featured in a stunning image from the Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy is home to the supernova SN 2024PI, which was first detected in January 2024 through an automated survey that monitors the northern sky every two days. The supernova appears as a pale blue dot near the galaxy’s core, surrounded by LEDA 22057’s delicate spiral arms. Captured about six weeks post-discovery, SN 2024PI has dimmed from its initial brightness.
Classified as a Type Ia supernova, SN 2024PI emerges from a white dwarf, the remaining core of a low-mass star that has exhausted its hydrogen. Stars with a mass under eight times that of the Sun evolve into red giants and eventually shed their outer layers, leaving behind a white dwarf. For a white dwarf to explode as a Type Ia supernova, it needs to be part of a binary system, where it accumulates material from a companion star. This extra mass leads to a catastrophic nuclear fusion reaction, resulting in a spectacular explosion visible across vast distances in the universe.