Astronomer's supernovae world record A Suffolk astronomer has broken a long-standing world record after identifying his 125th exploding star in the far reaches of the universe. Tom Boles, 65, runs the Coddenham Observatory, which has three robotically-controlled telescopes that scour the night sky looking for stars that are dying - known as supernovae.
A British amateur astronomer has broken a 36-year-old record for the number of exploding stars discovered by one person. Retired telecoms engineer Tom Boles, of Coddenham, Suffolk, has photographed and identified 125 supernovae erupting in distant galaxies from his private observatory. The previous record was held by a professional scientist, Bulgarian-born Professor Fritz Zwicky, who studied the size and age of the universe at the California Insitute of Technology. Read more