Youngest stargazer discovers supernova

A 10-year old Canadian girl has become the youngest person ever to discover a supernova.

Kathryn Gray made her find using pictures sent to her father’s amateur observatory.

Supernovas are powerful explosions marking the end of a star several times bigger than the Sun and are considered relatively rare events.

They are of particular interest to astronomers because they produce most of the chemical elements responsible for creating the Earth and the other planets in our solar system. Distant supernovas can offer clues as to the size and age of our universe.

A new supernova appears as a bright light that outshines the millions of ordinary stars around it and is visible even on amateur telescopes.

Gray spotted the magnitude 17 supernova on Sunday in the galaxy UGC 3378, which is around 240 million light years away, in the constellation of Camelopardalis.

Her father Paul, who has himself discovered six supernovas, helped her verify the find by ruling out asteroids and consulting a list of all known supernovas.

It was registered by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada although Gray did not give her own name to the discovery, which is known simply as Supernova 2010lt.

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