Stellar Firework in a Whirlwind

Colour-composite image of the Type Ia supernova SN 2006dr in the spiral galaxy NGC 1288, as observed with ESO's Very Large Telescope. It is based on images acquired through several filters (B, V, R, I and H-alpha) for a total exposure time of 5 minutes. The supernova is the bright object visible to the left of the centre of the galaxy. Many distant galaxies are also seen in the vicinity of NGC 1288, of which some are behind. The data were acquired by ESO's Paranal Science team. The final image was made by Henri Boffin (ESO).