Scientific American
Upgrades to the SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS) detection system offer advance notice of impending blasts
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Discovered in 1987, Supernova 1987A is the closest exploding star to Earth to be detected since 1604. It resides in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy adjacent to our own Milky Way. Credit: NASA, ESA, K. France
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Sky watchers both amateur and professional will soon have a new system to alert them to the spectacular death throes of stars in our galaxy. A revamped version of the SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS), a software program hosted on servers at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York, will soon provide more reliable, precise and timely notice of any star going supernova in the Milky Way an event that promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime display.