A supernova and its host galaxy are the subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy in question is LEDA 132905, which is situated in the constellation Sculptor. Even at over 400 million light-years away, LEDA 132905’s spiral structure is faintly visible, as are patches of bright blue stars.
The bright white dot directly in the centre of the image, between the bright centre of the galaxy and its faint left edge, is a supernova named SN 2022abvt. SN 2022abvt was discovered in late 2022, and Hubble observed the explosion about two months later. This image was constructed from data collected to study Type Ia supernovae, which occur when the exposed core of a dead star ignites in a sudden, destructive burst of nuclear fusion. Researchers are interested in this type of supernova because they can be used to measure precise distances to other galaxies.
The Universe is a big place, and supernova explosions are fleeting. How is it possible to be in the right place at the right time to catch a supernova when it happens? Today, most supernovae are discovered by robotic telescopes that continuously scan the night sky. But some are still found the old-fashioned way, by careful observers who take repeated images of the sky and search for changes. SN 2022abvt was spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS. As the name suggests, ATLAS was designed to track down the faint, fast-moving signals from asteroids close to Earth. In addition to searching out asteroids, ATLAS also keeps tabs on objects that brighten or fade suddenly, like supernovae, variable stars and galactic centres powered by hungry black holes.
[Image Description: In the exact centre a supernova is seen as a small but bright blue dot. It lies atop a spiral galaxy, close to the glowing centre and next to some bright patches of blue stars in the galaxy. A small number of more minor galaxies are visible around the comparatively large spiral as small glowing discs, while further distant galaxies are seen as mere orangish spots and smudges, all on a black background.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz); CC BY 4.0
Tags: LEDA 132905 ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology HST Hubble Space Telescope Galaxy Supernova NASA Creative Commons Stars Star
© All Rights Reserved
The ranges and valleys of the Swiss Alps stand out in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission in December 2024.
Extending some 1200 km, the Alps occupy an area of about 200 000 sq km and are home to some 20 million people. The image shows the Bernese Alps, which form the central part of the Swiss Alps.
In this image, the sunlight comes from the southeast, illuminating the snow-capped mountains and creating thick shadows over the northern slopes. These shadows across the image may play tricks on the eye, as they can easily be misinterpreted as water bodies.
The largest water body visible in the image is the eastern part of Lake Thun, appearing in dark blue in the top left. Just next to the eastern corner of the lake lies the town of Interlaken, located between lakes Thun and Brienz. Interlaken is partially covered by low-lying clouds trapped in the valley floor, while lake Brienz, to its west, is completely covered.
Near the centre of the image we can see the Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Alps, which stretches for approximately 23 km and covers an area of around 80 sq km. A typical valley glacier, Aletsch originates in a large, flat area of snow and ice high in the mountains called Concordia, where three smaller glaciers converge. Switzerland’s three famous Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains rise north of Concordia. The Aletsch Glacier extends south, and its meltwater creates the Massa River in the valley below.
Glaciers in this region are showing long-term retreat from climate change, which poses increased risks such as flooding and landslides to communities.
Aletsch and the surrounding mountains are part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is home to a wide diversity of ecosystems and is of major importance to scientific research in geology, geomorphology, climatic change, biology and atmospheric physics.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Space Technology Earth from Space Observing the Earth Earth Observation Earth Explorer Satellite image Sentinel Copernicus Alps Lake Thun lake Brienz Aletsch Glacier Concordia Eiger Mönch Jungfrau Massa River Massa River Switzerland
© All Rights Reserved
This is J0614-7251, a supernova remnant observed by XMM-Newton.
Read more about this discovery here!
[Image description: A colourful circle in the middle of this square image stands out against a pitch-black background. The circle reminds of a sugar-sweet candy, with a bright yellow centre with a pink ring around it. Around the centre, bluish green spots seem to be floating around in the image, that appear like air bubbles in the deep black sea.]
Credits: Eckhard Slawik, ESA/XMM-Newton/M. Sasaki et al (2025)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F. Zangrandi
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology XMM-Newton XMM Supernova Supernova remnant J0614-7251
© All Rights Reserved
This is J0624-6948, a supernova remnant observed by XMM-Newton.
Read more about this discovery here!
[Image description: This image shows dark purple and bright yellow spots against a pitch-black background, that appear like neon lights outside a window in a city at night. In the centre of the image, the spots cluster to loosely form a ring, which is mostly purple.]
Credits: Eckhard Slawik, ESA/XMM-Newton/M. Sasaki et al (2025)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F. Zangrandi
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology XMM-Newton XMM Supernova Supernova remnant J0624-6948
© All Rights Reserved
When the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton pointed its telescope at two unidentified sources of light in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud, scientists were able to confirm what seemed an unlikely discovery. They found two supernova remnants in the far reaches of our neighbouring galaxy.
The two objects that XMM-Newton looked at are shown as the two circles in the lower left of this visible-light image of the Large Magellanic Cloud: J0624-6948 (orange, higher in the image) and J0614-7251 (blue, lower in the image). The yellow crosses represent supernova remnants that had been found before.
It is surprising that these two sources of light turned out to be supernova remnants, far away from all other echoes of stellar explosions that we knew of before. Scientists believe, that for the shock of a supernova to leave such an imprint on its surroundings, the dying star must be in an environment that is dense enough with charged particles (ionised gas). This is not usually the type of gas we find so far in the outer reaches of a galaxy.
This is one of the new things we can learn from XMM-Newton’s discovery: The environment around the Large Magellanic Cloud is made up of more electrically charged gas than we would expect. The reason for this likely lies in how the galaxy is interacting with the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud. In this way, these two supernova remnants are helping us to better understand the dynamics of our home galaxy’s neighbourhood.
XMM-Newton observed the two remnants in three different types of X-ray light. This resulted in the three colours (yellow, purple and blue) in the images that appear when clicking on the two circles. They give an indication of the chemical elements that are most common in different parts of the remnants.
The yellow colour that is for example dominant in the centre of J0614-7251 tells us that this part of the supernova remnant is made up mostly of iron. This clue allowed scientists to classify this remnant for the very first time as the result of a Type-Ia supernova. This was possible because the new image by XMM-Newton shows enough detail to distinguish the inner circle and outer ring of the remnant clearly enough.
Find the scientific paper about this discovery here.
[Image Description: A vast sea of speckles of stars against a faded black background. In the centre of the image, the stars cluster to form a bright and dense green cottoncandy-colored haze, that is the Large Magellanic Cloud. Scattered across the middle of the image are about 50 small yellow crosses, some of them are so close to one another that they almost overlap. In the lower left quarter of the image, two circles were drawn that lay wide apart: an orange circle towards the horizontal middle of the image, and a blue one to the lower right of it.]
Credits: Eckhard Slawik, ESA/XMM-Newton/M. Sasaki et al (2025)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F. Zangrandi
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology XMM-Newton XMM Supernova Supernova remnant J0624-6948 J0614-7251
© All Rights Reserved