A Star Blows Up in Nearby Galaxy

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https://www.fraknoi.com/astronomy/a-star-blows-up-in-nearby-galaxy/

By Andrew Fraknoi. 

Excerpt: In a galaxy not so “far, far away,” called the Pinwheel Galaxy (or by its catalog number, M101,) astronomers have seen a star explode. Some 21 million lightyears from us — which, believe it or not, is “close” as far as astronomers are concerned — a massive star ended its life by blowing most of itself into smithereens. We call such an explosion a supernova, a word that has entered popular culture as the name of at least five movies and a jazz album. This supernova was only discovered on May 19th, and is still getting brighter and brighter. Some of these explosions can become so bright that they outshine their entire galaxy. We’ll have to see how bright this one gets. ...Our best estimates are that the star that blew up had enough material in it to make 15 of our Suns. ...We estimate that one such supernova goes off in a galaxy like our Milky Way once every 50-75 years. But M101 is a bigger galaxy, containing some one trillion, or a thousand billion, stars. (Like the national debt, such numbers are hard to take in.) So M101 is a source of more supernovae. The last one we saw in that galaxy was in 2011, not that long ago. ...any gold jewelry you happen to wearing, was made through the death of another massive star, many billions of years ago ...and is now on your finger, neck, or wrist. Pretty cool!... 

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