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Space

Victorian supernova helps fill missing link

By Hazel Muir

14 May 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The supernova remnant G1.9+0.3 was created by the explosion of a star about 28,000 light years away. Debris from the explosion has expanded over time, as seen in a radio image (blue) taken in 1985 and an X-ray image (orange) taken in 2007 (X-ray image: NASA/CXC/NCSU/S Reynolds et al.; radio image: NSF/NRAO/VLA/Cambridge/D Green et al.)

A supernova remnant near the centre of the Milky Way has turned out to be the youngest known in our galaxy, plugging a puzzling gap in the astronomical record.

Known as G1.9+0.3, the remnant lies about 28,000 light years away. It was first…

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