posted by bnimball
on June 4, 2011 - 11:43am
Called a Type II Supernova, this new discovery is a member of an elite stellar club of heavyweights -supergiant stars at least 10 times larger than our sun that completely destroy themselves when they reach the end of their lives. Astronomers believe that a supernova explosion occurs about once a century in all spiral galaxies. However this galaxy appears to be testing that theory since this will be the third such stellar detonation to occur in the same galaxy in just 17 years!
Imaged with the AT10RCF working at f6, and the SBIG STL-11000m with Astrodon filters.
Category or Object Type:
Galaxy
