Reminiscing on a failed supernova

About 70 million light years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus (The Winged Horse) is the irregular galaxy of UGC 12682. Pictured here by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers look at this image and reminisce about the time a 14-year-old girl from New York, United States, discovered an extremely peculiar supernova within this galaxy, known as SN 2008ha.

Further observations showed that SN 2008ha was one of the faintest supernovae ever discovered and was found in this galaxy that rarely produces stellar explosions. After its initial eruption it expanded very slowly, which suggests it didn’t have the energy for a full stellar outburst. This led scientists to put SN 2008ha down as a failed supernova, as it failed to destroy the whole star.