[ETL]

The supernova is new, to us. It happened 12 million years ago, if indeed, it is located 12 million light years away.

And for those who aren't aware, ONE light year, the *distance* light travels in a year at its speed of 186,000 miles per second, works out to just under 6 TRILLION miles. Now multiply 6 trillion by 12 million.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Oddly enough, the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is in the Milky Way. It is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, which the Milky Way has “eaten”, so some of its stars have already become Milky Way stars. As a galaxy, it is actually closer to Earth than the galactic center, at only 25,000 light years. (From us, the galactic center is about 30,000 light years away.)

The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is pretty dinky, with only about a billion stars, whereas the Milky Way has from 200 to 400 billion.