This Hubble Picture of the Week shows NGC 337, a barred spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. The image blends two wavelengths, with the golden centre made of older stars and the blue outer arms lit by young hot stars. Among those blue stars sat SN 2014cx, a supernova discovered almost simultaneously by the amateur hunter Koichi Itagaki and by ASAS-SN, a network of robotic telescopes that scans the sky for sudden events. Researchers classed it as a Type IIP supernova, meaning the star was a supergiant at least eight times the Sun's mass. Its brightness levelled off into a plateau for weeks or months before fading. The star's core could no longer produce enough energy to resist gravity, and it collapsed in a violent explosion.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.