Last month, my brother and I drove out two hours east of Los Angeles to the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California. Amateur astronomers had gathered outside the Community Center parking lot to spend an evening looking at the stars. The night’s featured object was Supernova 2011 fe, a type 1A supernova located in the Pinwheel Galaxy just above the big dipper. Highly sensitive cameras captured the image from deep space; a small spec of light – the supernova, 21 million light years away.
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