An amateur astronomer testing a new camera happens to catch a supernova as it's being born
by Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
Feb 22, 2018
3 minutes
Peering at a distant galaxy, an amateur astronomer in Argentina managed to capture a star in the act of going supernova. The chances of this discovery, scientists say, are 1-in-a-million at best.
This lucky find, described in the journal Nature, offers the first images of the sudden brightening caused by a shock in the star's core - a process that had been theorized but never observed.
"This is the first confirmation of the existence of this phase, which is
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