Kathryn Aurora Gray knew a superstar when she saw one (and with a middle name like that, how could she not?). The 10-year-old girl from New Brunswick, Canada, just became the youngest person to ever to find a supernova (with a little help from astronomer dad):
Since a supernova can outshine millions of ordinary stars, it can be easy to spot with a modest telescope — even in a distant galaxy such as UGC 3378, which is about 240 million light-years away. The trick is to check previous images of the same location to see if there are any changes. That’s what Kathryn was doing for the images of the galaxy taken by her father.
Nancy Atkinson of Universe Today has the story: Link (Photo: David Smith/AP)