Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2020

48 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020 SPACE CHRONICLES questions about our Universe’s very nature. The supernova, formally known as SN2018gv, was first spot- ted in mid-January 2018. Hubble began observing the brilliant bright- ness of the supernova in February 2018 as part of the research pro- gram led by lead researcher and Nobel Laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins Univer- sity, in Baltimore, USA. The Hubble images center on the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2525, which is located in the constellation of Puppis in the Southern Hemisphere. The supernova is captured by Hub- ble in exquisite detail within this galaxy in the left portion of the image. It appears as a very bright star located on the outer edge of one of its beautiful swirling spiral arms. This new and unique time- lapse of Hubble images created by the ESA/Hubble team shows the once bright supernova initially out- A spectacular supernova time-lapse T he NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has tracked the fad- ing light of a supernova in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525, located 70 million light-years away. Super- novae like this one can be used as cosmic tape measures, allowing as- tronomers to calculate the distance to their galaxies. Hubble captured these images as part of one of its major investigations, measuring the expansion rate of the Universe, which can help answer fundamental by NASA/ESA