Jan 22nd 2014
Astronomers have been stunned by the appearance of a new supernova in the night sky.
A star in the galaxy M82 has exploded - or at least, the light from the explosion 11.5 million years ago just reached Earth - and scientists are hailing it as a spectacular chance to study a relatively rare event.
The supernova is the closest to Earth since the 1987.
Supernovas usually occur when massive stars run out of hydrogen fuel and collapse, before releasing vast amounts of energy in a stellar explosion visible across the galaxy.
Staff at UCL's University of London Observatory - among the first to spot the event - said that the star exploded at around 7.20pm on Tuesday evening, in the galaxy also known as 'The Cigar Galaxy'.
Here is an animation showing the before and after of the supernova:
A star in the galaxy M82 has exploded - or at least, the light from the explosion 11.5 million years ago just reached Earth - and scientists are hailing it as a spectacular chance to study a relatively rare event.
The supernova is the closest to Earth since the 1987.
Supernovas usually occur when massive stars run out of hydrogen fuel and collapse, before releasing vast amounts of energy in a stellar explosion visible across the galaxy.
Staff at UCL's University of London Observatory - among the first to spot the event - said that the star exploded at around 7.20pm on Tuesday evening, in the galaxy also known as 'The Cigar Galaxy'.
Here is an animation showing the before and after of the supernova:
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