Supernova
New research suggests at least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were caused by a nearby supernova. Pictured is an example of one of these stellar explosions, Supernova 1987a (centre), within a neighbouring galaxy to our Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), and M. Mutchler and R. Avila (STScI)
Licence type