LONDON: Three stellar exiles exploded in solitude hundreds of light-years away from their closest cosmic neighbors, it was revealed this week.
Supernova giant exploding stars at the end of their lives — are usually embedded within galaxies that play host to billions of stars. But new data from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that three stars went supernova alone, in the void between galaxies in different clusters.
These huge star explosions could give scientists a better idea of what happens in those mysterious, empty areas of space between galaxies.
The three errant supernova were first discovered between 2008 and 2010 by using a telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. But the Hubble’s more recent, sharper observations revealed more about the three supernova.
The earlier survey couldn’t rule out the possibility that the supernova were embedded in faint galaxies, but the newer Hubble images did — showing that they truly are exiles.
The supernovas were all about 300 light years from their closest galactic neighbors, “nearly 100 times farther than our sun’s nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light years distant,” wrote Robert Sanders of the University of California, Berkeley in a statement.
