Image: Going supernova

While searching the skies for black holes using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers discovered a giant supernova that was smothered in its own dust.

In this artist's rendering, an outer shell of gas and dust -- which erupted from the star hundreds of years ago -- obscures the supernova within.

This event in a distant galaxy hints at one possible future for the brightest star system in our own Milky Way.