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| Type 1a Supernova in the galaxy NGC 1399, Constellation Pegasus. Credit: Jodrell Plank Observatory. |
Who doesn't like a big bang in a galaxy 44 million light years away?
Two stars, one a white dwarf and one a red giant were orbiting a common point of gravity. The much denser white dwarf stripped hydrogen from the red giant until the Chandrasekhar Limit for mass was exceeded, at which point the white dwarf exploded in a cataclysmic explosion that briefly exceeded the light from all the millions of stars in the galaxy core. The light from that explosion has been travelling to us for 44 million years where we see it as happening in real time.
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