Supernova shines in the Hubble spotlight

On 21 January 2014, a ground-based telescope spotted a supernova detonating in the galaxy M2. Ten days later, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped the image shown here in the inset, just as the explosion was reaching peak brightness. Dubbed SN 2014J, this dying star is a mere 11.5 million light-years away and is classified as a type Ia supernova – making it the closest of its type yet discovered. The explosive image is superimposed on a false-colour mosaic of the entire galaxy, taken by Hubble in 2006.