the-star-stuff:

All These Stars Will Explode Together Like a String of Firecrackers

This is one of the most impressive Hubble Space Telescope’s images. It shows a massive group of young stars called R136, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. But that’s not what makes them so special:

Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are 100 times more massive than our sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years.

In a few million years, someone—perhaps a bunch of space cats—will witness what will become of the most amazing firework shows in the history of the Universe. [NASA]