Double Trouble

This image reveals the aftermath of not one, but two supernova explosions in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way. Each explosion marked the death of a supergiant star. One exploded about 50,000 years ago as seen from Earth, the other slightly earlier. The blasts were in a massive star cluster, 30 Doradus, which has given birth to some of the heaviest stars yet seen. This images combines X-ray (purple), infrared (red), and visible (orange and blue) wavelengths, from several telescopes on the ground and in space, to yield a comprehensive history of the region. [X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/HST; Infrared: NASA/JPL/CalTech/SST]