Jun 10 1997
From The Space Library
Astrophysicists William P. Blair, Robert A. Fesen, and Eric M. Schlegel presented to the American Astronomical Society the first images ever recorded of two supernovas colliding. The team used the Hubble Space Telescope to capture the images of the supernovas, more than 17 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers had suspected that collisions occurred between exploding stars, but had been unable to capture an image of the process, because it was so short-lived. Although the scientific community would continue to debate the implications of the image, Blair offered this assessment of its significance: "It indicates that not only is there a lot of star formation going on, but a lot of those stars are massive. They are evolving quickly, and they are exploding as supernovas.
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