The closest supernova of its kind to be observed in the last few decades has sparked a global observing campaign involving legions of instruments on the ground and in space, including NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope. Seen here is supernova explosion SN 2014J in the galaxy M82 from these two different spacecraft. As a distance of approximately 11.5 million light-years from Earth, galaxy M82 is seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in the background of this composite image. Astronomers using a ground-based telescope discovered the explosion on January 21, 2014. On the left is Spitzer's view of the supernova on three separate dates: May 9, 2005; Feb. 7, 2014; and Feb. 12, 2014. The observations from February 7 reveal the presence of a bright spot -- the supernova -- not present in the prior observations. By Feb. 12, the supernova has started to dim somewhat from its peak brightness in the first week of February. The supernova is glowing very brightly in the infrare...