The Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured images of a supernova explosion that occurred in our neighbor galaxy called Large Magellanic Cloud.
The VLT is a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and described as the world’s most advanced optical instrument. It lets astronomers zoom in the space images up to 25 times higher than the regular telescopes.
ESO astronomer Dr. Olivier Hainaut was captivated with the images of the supernova explosion. "The next step is that you realize we are watching little pieces of the Universe next door. Just to see all these stars that are being born - it's a really nice story to see that our Universe is moving and evolving,” he told BBC News.
The space event occurred in Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It is a neighbor galaxy about nearly 200,000 light years away from Earth. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is smaller than other galaxies familiar to us such as the Milky Way and the Andromeda. It got its name after Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan who first discovered it.
The nebulae, which are clouds of gas and dust surrounding old and young stars, hold energy that forms clusters of stars. The radiance that they give off is a result of the massive temperatures caused by the birth of new stars, which have short but extremely luminous lives compared to our Sun.
It also emits very bright colors which provide insight of its inner temperatures. The blue-colored stars are big ones that are extremely hot and bright but don’t last long. The red ones on the other hand have lower temperatures.
The dark lines seen in the image above are accumulated dirt and gas blended together. Its dark color indicates the effect of its absorption of light.
Gigantic stars eventually become highly unstable when they burn fuel. Ultimately, they will collapse and combust as supernovas. Evidence of which can be seen on the left side of the image.
