Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2024

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2024 not rocket science. We made the dis- covery simply by looking at the im- ages. And while we were really surprised, our statistical analyses of the data confirmed what we clearly saw,” said Shara. This accomplishment is entirely due to Hubble’s unique capabilities. Ground-based telescope images do not have the clarity to see novae deep inside M87. They cannot re- solve stars or stellar eruptions close to the galaxy’s core because the black hole’s surroundings are far too bright. Only Hubble can detect novae against the bright M87 back- ! ground. Novae are remarkably com- mon in the universe. One nova erupts somewhere in M87 every day. But since there are at least 100 billion galaxies throughout the visi- ble universe, around 1 million novae erupt every second somewhere out there.