Capturing A Supernova Explosion Only Hours After It Began

[Binary_Bark]

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The details of a supernova explosion are still clouded in mystery and subject to vigorous debate. What exactly happens when they explode? What underlying mechanisms are involved? New observations of a supernova with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope are removing some of the mystery.

The powerful telescope observed a SN only 26 hours after the explosion began. For the first time, astrophysicists have observational data from an exploding star very soon after it began. The observations caught the explosion as it was breaching the star's outer surface, revealing its true shape.

Capturing A Supernova Explosion Only Hours After It Began

Observations of a supernova explosion have revealed its shape only one day after it was first detected. The exact nature of supernovae explosions are unclear and the subject of ongoing, detailed debate. These new observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope will...

www.universetoday.com

 

[Cray]

Actually a few hours and 22 million years after it began but close enough....

22 million light-years away.

Very cool though