NASA Beholds Another Supernova; Sister Star Sighted To Have Hung On To Dear Life

With the data collected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the images seems to tell us that a star is on a brink of a massive cosmic explosion. According to NASA, the star is about 11 million light-years from earth, and belongs in the galaxy M81.

In the image, or at least an artist's rendition of the anatomy of the unfolding space drama, the star is the just a spec at the center of the colorful sphere, which represents debris resulted from the explosion.

Experts with the Space Telescope Science Institute in the US say that the star in the middle of this massive explosion used to be part and parcel of a binary system, or the two celestial bodies that sit very close to one another and that orbit a common center of mass.

In time, the remaining star's companion siphoned most of its hydrogen embraced to its baby sister. Finally, it reached the end of its life and self-destructed in a massive stellar explosion known as a Type II b supernova.

The big sister might be long gone, but the other star that formed this binary system is still quite active. If so, it’s surrounded by the remains of its extinct companion and not all that easy to spot because of the glow of the supernova, but it is still holding on.

As provided by the astronomers behind the project, the light that comes from the supernova that hides this star was first seen in 1993. Also, during that time, scientists dubbed the stellar explosion SN 1993J. Based on the particularities of this supernova, they come to a conclusion that it had took place in a binary system.

Therefore, they set out to look for the dead star's companion. However, the astronomers took about two decades to successfully pin down the location of the remaining star among the debris and the glare of the explosion hiding it from sight.