The arms of
spiral galaxy Messier 100 stretch outward, each full of hot young stars and one
newly found supernova.
Messier 100
sits about 60 million light-years away from Earth and spans a diameter of about
120,000 light-years. That’s slight larger than our own Milky Way, which runs
about 100,000 light-years in width. One light-year is the distance light
travels in one year, or about 5.88 trillion miles
(9.7 trillion kilometers).
On
Feb. 4, 2006, Japanese astronomer Shoji Suzuki and Italian astronomer Marco
Migliardi discovered Supernova 2006X (SN 2006X) in Messier 100, the 24th
such stellar explosion detected this year. The supernova is clearly visible in
this image as a very bright object sitting in the lower center above the lower
middle spiral arm.
Four
other supernovas have been discovered in this galaxy since 1900, making Messier
100 a haven for stellar explosions. Astronomers used the European Southern
Observatory’s FORS1 multi-mode instruments on the Very Large Telescope to build
this view of Messier 100.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: ESO
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