For the first time ever, astronomers – alerted by a strange brightening cloud of nebulous material surrounding a giant red star in a distant galaxy – have watched the process of an exploding supernova from beginning to end.
The last time a star visibly exploded in our own galaxy was way back in 1604. Still, although we’ve seen some star explode in some galaxy at the rate of about once a year, we’ve never watched the process from before it even happened. So this counts as one of astronomy’s true first-time events.
Strange Universe 1/23/22
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