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Supernova observations

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NGC 2770 is a galaxy at the relatively close distance of 84 million light years away. On January 9, 2008, a massive star in it exploded, and instead of finding out days or weeks later, astronomers caught it in the act, right at the moment, in flagrante delicto. The image above, from the Gemini observatory, shows the galaxy and its new supernova.Wow, huh?

for the first time in history, astronomers have unambiguously observed the exact moment when a star explodes.

More from the Bad Astronomer.

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Categories: arts & entertainment, Science

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2 replies

  1. Helen
    2008-05-23 • 7:46 PM

    Oh thanks for posting this – Boychild’s just doing a project on Supernovae for school.

  2. mimbles
    2008-05-24 • 5:03 PM

    Right, that does it, I’m finally adding Bad Astronomer to my feeds. Can’t think why I haven’t done so before. This is just awesome 🙂
    mimbless last blog post..RIP Robert Asprin

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