supernova – Page 2 – Astronomy Now

Hubble spots surviving companion to a supernova

26 April 2018 William Harwood

For the first time, the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the surviving companion of a star that exploded in a supernova blast 17 years ago, evidence that supernovas can originate in binary star systems.

Kepler Space Telescope sheds light on fast-evolving supernovae

26 March 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has captured a difficult-to-detect, fast-evolving supernova in the act of blowing up and rapidly fading away, allowing astronomers to rule out competing theories and come up with a plausible explanation.

Amateur astronomer makes once-in-lifetime discovery

23 February 2018 Astronomy Now

Testing a new camera, an amateur astronomer in Argentina captured the initial outburst of light from a supernova some 85 million light years away, a chance discovery that amounts to winning a cosmic lottery.

Hubble spots expanding light echo around supernova

10 November 2017 Astronomy Now

Light from a supernova explosion in the nearby starburst galaxy M82 is reverberating off a huge dust cloud in interstellar space.

Astronomers discover a star that would not die

9 November 2017 Astronomy Now

Supernovae, the explosions of stars, have been observed in the thousands and in all cases they marked the death of a star. Astronomers at Las Cumbres Observatory have discovered a remarkable exception — a star that exploded multiple times over a period of more than fifty years. Their observations are challenging existing theories on these cosmic catastrophes.

Astronomers discover ‘heavy metal’ supernova rocking out

2 August 2017 Astronomy Now

Many rock stars don’t like to play by the rules, and a cosmic one is no exception. A team of astronomers has discovered that an extraordinarily bright supernova occurred in a surprising location. This “heavy metal” supernova discovery challenges current ideas of how and where such super-charged supernovas occur.

Superluminous supernova marks the death of a star at cosmic high noon

22 July 2017 Astronomy Now

The death of a massive star in a distant galaxy 10 billion years ago created a rare superluminous supernova that astronomers say is one of the most distant ever discovered.

Heart of an exploded star observed in 3D

13 July 2017 Astronomy Now

Supernovas — the violent endings of the brief yet brilliant lives of massive stars — are among the most cataclysmic events in the cosmos. Though supernovas mark the death of stars, they also trigger the birth of new elements and the formation of new molecules.

Keck Observatory captures rare high-resolution images of exploded star

26 April 2017 Astronomy Now

Scientists will now be able to measure how fast the universe is truly expanding with the kind of precision not possible before. This, after an international team of astronomers led by Stockholm University, Sweden, captured four distinct images of a gravitationally lensed Type Ia supernova, named iPTF16geu.

The dawn of a new era for Supernova 1987A

24 February 2017 Stephen Clark

Three decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called Supernova 1987A, blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987.