London Students Discover Exploding Star in Nearby Galaxy

What started out as a 10-minute telescope lesson turned into something much more exciting, as a group of astronomy students at the University College London raced against encroaching cloud cover to document an amazing scientific discovery.

On the night Jan. 21, astronomer Steve Fossey was showing undergraduates how to use a telescope at the University of London Observatory when they spotted a star explosion in Messier 82, a nearby galaxy.

"The weather was closing in, with increasing cloud, so instead of the planned practical astronomy class, I gave the students an introductory demonstration of how to use the CCD camera on one of the observatory's automated 13.7-inch telescopes," Fossey said in a statement form UCL Read more...