December 10, 2016

A Bright Supernova in the Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403

A Bright Supernova in the Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403

The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar blast, called a supernova. The supernova is so bright in this image that it easily could be mistaken for a foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy. And yet, this supernova, called SN 2004dj, resides far beyond our galaxy. Its home is in the outskirts of NGC 2403, a galaxy located 11 million light-years from Earth. Although the supernova is far from Earth, it is the closest stellar explosion discovered in more than a decade.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A.V. Filippenko
Explanation from: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0423a/

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