* Astronomy

Scientists are studying a strange explosion that appeared on February 18, 2006, about 440 million light years away in the constellation Aries.

The "before" image on the left is from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
The "after" image on the right is from NASA Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. The pinpoint of light from this star explosion outshines the entire host galaxy. Most other sources are foreground stars.


Position(2000): RA = 03:21:39.71 Dec = +16:52:02.6
Each image is 5 arcminutes by 5 arcminutes.

Amateur astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere might be able to see it next week.

The blast seemed a lot like a gamma-ray burst, however it may be the start of a supernova explosion.
But when scientists first detected it with NASA’s Swift satellite on Feb. 18, the explosion was about 25 times closer and lasted 100 times longer than a typical gamma-ray burst.

"This is totally new, totally unexpected. This is the type of unscripted event in our nearby universe that we hoped Swift could catch" - Neil Gehrels, Swift’s principal investigator.

This would be the second-closest gamma-ray burst ever detected, if indeed it is one.
The burst lasted for nearly 2,000 seconds, or about 33 minutes.
Most bursts last a few milliseconds to tens of seconds. It also was surprisingly dim.
Scientists at Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics found hints of a budding supernova when they saw the afterglow from the original explosion grow brighter in optical light.


Read more