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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

The explosive birth of a celestial ‘Cow’

Evidence points to a supernova as the source of a dazzling object that telescopes spotted in 2018.
An image of supernova explosion AT2018cow and its host galaxy, CGCG 137-068.

A distant galaxy (centre) includes a mysterious object (one of blue dots in lower right quadrant) that burst into view in 2018. Credit: R. Margutti/W. M. Keck Observatory

A mysterious and tremendously bright astronomical object spotted last year was probably a massive star’s explosion.

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Nature 571, 300 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02125-2

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