Mount St. Helens

Before blowing its top in May of 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington state was a perfect cone-shaped volcano.  This original B&W photo was taken by Craig Hudson in 1937 at a quieter moment in its development.  Here it is seen in the light of a massive supernova discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki in 2004. STScI-PRC2004-23; NASA, ESA, A.V. Filippenko (UC-Berkeley) and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.) Courtesy of Jeannine Hudson-Green.

Click on image to return to Natural World