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18th of February 2016
Celestial Fireworks in M87
by Juan Madrid (CASS)
The Hubble Space Telescope was used to hunt for novae in the central part of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy - top image. Hubble took images of M87 during a ten week period in order to find these variable sources. The bottom image shows the light curve of one nova where we can appreciate how this new source appears and then fades away again. This new study found that on average every day of the year a nova goes off in M87. The nova rate for the Milky is about one nova per week.

Reference: Shara et al. 2016, ApJS, submitted

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)


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