The supernova and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) Photo courtesy of Huffington Post.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) on April 5 named a supernova in honor of Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), a social worker who is chairman of the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee, according to this article on Huffington Post.

Supernova Mikulski, a massive exploding star, has a mass eight times larger than our sun. It is located 7.4 billion light years away.

Mikulski is a long-time supporter of the Hubble Space Telescope, which located the supernova in January.

Besides naming a supernova in her honor, STScI also dedicated the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. The archive is as large as the Library of Congress and allows a free flow of data to scientists, the public and researchers from space telescopes such as Hubble and the Kepler Observatory.