Supernova Birth Seen For First Time
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 13:21
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers have seen the aftermath of spectacular stellar explosions known as supernovae before, but until now no one has witnessed a star dying in real time. While looking at another object in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, using NASA's orbiting Swift telescope, astronomers detected an extremely luminous blast of X-rays released by a supernova explosion. They alerted 8 other orbiting and on-ground telescopes to turn their eyes on this first-of-its-kind event.