| 18th of February 2016 |
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| Celestial Fireworks in M87 |
| by Juan Madrid (CASS) |
| The Hubble Space Telescope was used to hunt
for novae in the central part of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy - top image.
Hubble took images of M87 during a ten week period in order to find these
variable sources. The bottom image shows the light curve of one nova where
we can appreciate how this new source appears and then fades away again.
This new study found that on average every day of the year a nova goes off
in M87. The nova rate for the Milky is about one nova per week. Reference: Shara et al. 2016, ApJS, submitted Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) |