**Astronomy Picture of the Day** 07 May 2026 **Supernova in a Sideways Spiral** Video: Video Credit: Hunter Outten & Kaleb Jordan Text: Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II ) 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. #APOD #Supernova #NGC5907 #EdgeOnSpiral #CosmicEvent #Astronomy

APOD: 2026 May 7 – Supernova in a Sideways Spiral

A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.