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NASA's new stunning time lapse video shows a gigantic star exploding

NASA's new stunning time lapse video shows a gigantic star exploding

Hubble observed a supernova on the outer edge of spiral galaxy NGC 2525

American spcae agency NASA has shared a video depicting the explosion of a gigantic star which is 70 million light years away from the Earth.

The thermonuclear explosion was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope which is jointly run by NASA and the Euoropean Sapce Agency.

The type of supernova seen in this sequence originated from a burned-out star,a white dwarf located in a close binary system, that is accreting material from its companion star.

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When the white dwarf reaches a critical mass, its core becomes hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion, turning it into a giant atomic bomb. This thermonuclear runaway process tears the dwarf apart. The opulence is short-lived as the fireball fades away.

According to the introduction of the video it zooms into the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2525, located 70 million light-years away in the southern constellation Puppis.

Roughly half the diameter of our Milky Way, it was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1791 as a "spiral nebula."

In the time-lapse sequence, spanning nearly a year, the supernova first appears as a blazing star located on the galaxy's outer edge. It initially outshines the brightest stars in the galaxy before fading out of sight.

Nobel laureate Adam Riess, of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins Universityin Baltimore,leader of theHigh-z Supernova Search Team, said"No Earthly fireworks display can compete with this supernova, captured in its fading glory by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Knowing the actual brightness of the supernova and observing its brightness in the sky, astronomers can calculate the distances of their host galaxies. This allows astronomers to measure the expansion rate of the universe.

Hubble didn't record the initial blast in January 2018, but for nearly one year took consecutive photos, from 2018 to 2019, that have been assembled into a time-lapse sequence. At its peak, the exploding star was as bright as 5 billion Suns.