A long time ago, in a
distant galaxy, a massive star was destroyed in a
supernova explosion.
The light of this event travelled for tens of millions of years and reached Earth last week as
Supernova 2026kid.
The
featured video shows a time-lapse over three nights of the
host galaxy NGC 5907, an edge-on
spiral also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, as the supernova appears and becomes brighter.
(The occasional streaks are
satellites in Earth orbit.)
At its brightest, a supernova can
outshine the sum of all other stars in its galaxy.
Supernova 2026kid appears
relatively dim, probably because we are seeing it through the edge-on disk of the galaxy.
Such explosions typically happen about once per century in galaxies similar to the
Milky Way, and their light can take
months to fade away.
The brightest supernova in recorded history was
SN 1006; it is reported to have been brighter than Venus, and even visible in the sky during daytime.