10-Year Old is the Youngest Person Ever to Discover a Supernova

Kathryn Aurora Gray, a 10-year old girl from Frederictown, Canada, already has an impressive item on her resume. She's an amateur astronomer and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has credited her with discovering a previously-unknown supernova:

The society said that in this case the galaxy was "imaged" on Friday, New Year's Eve, and the supernova was located on Sunday.

A new supernova shows up as a bright point of light that wasn't visible the last time a galaxy was checked. Since supernovas can outshine millions of regular stars, they can be spotted with a modest telescope.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/01/03/nb-supernova-girl.html via Popular Science | Image: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

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