Developments in Brief : Supernova Lights the Christmas Sky

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a “Christmas Supernova,” an exploding star in a galaxy millions of light years away in the constellation Eridanus.

Supernovae are the violent, final explosions of large stars whose centers collapse as stores of hydrogen fuel are exhausted. Remaining helium and other atoms fuse to form heavy elements and release gravitational and nuclear energy, blowing most of the star apart.

“The galaxy doesn’t even have a name,” said Richard Muller of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. “It has a number--NGC (for New General Catalogue) 1667. But around here, the group is referring to it as ‘the Christmas Supernova.’ ”

The supernova is not visible to the naked eye, but it can be observed with a home telescope. At midnight, it is almost directly overhead. Amateur astronomers can spot it by finding the constellation Eridanus just south of the better-known constellation Taurus.

The latest find was made last Monday night by an undergraduate student, who spotted the star in the center of the galaxy, 300 million light years away.

“We really don’t know very much about them,” Muller said of the exploding stars. “But we do believe they provide the raw materials for formation of planets and development of life.”