APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Supernova in a Sideways Spiral
Explanation: A long time ago, in a distant galaxy , a massive star was destroyed in a supernova explosion. The light of this event travelled for tens of millions of years and reached Earth last week as Supernova 2026kid . The featured video shows a time-lapse over three nights of the host galaxy NGC 5907 , an edge-on spiral also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, as the supernova appears and becomes brighter. (The occasional streaks are satellites in Earth orbit.) At its brightest, a supernova can outshine the sum of all other stars in its galaxy. Supernova 2026kid appears relatively dim , probably because we are seeing it through the edge-on disk of the galaxy. Such explosions typically happen about once per century in galaxies similar to the Milky Way , and their light can take months to fade away. The brightest supernova in recorded history was SN 1006 ; it is reported to have been brighter than Venus, and even visible in the sky during daytime.
| Date | May 7, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Credit |
Video Credit: Hunter Outten & Kaleb Jordan Text: Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II ) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |


