Sunday, April 1, 2007

Exploding Star Viewed in Distant Galaxy

This is a picture of galaxy NGC 5584. It is 75 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Notice the big, bright, white "dot" near the end of one of its lower right spiral arms. It is actually a star in the process of exploding, otherwise known as a supernova. This is the second time in 11 years that the galaxy has "hosted" a dying star.

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