Astronomers have discovered the brightest star explosion ever, a super supernova that easily outshines our entire Milky Way.
An international team revealed “the most powerful supernova observed in human history” Thursday in the latest Science journal. The astronomers used a network of telescopes around the world to spot the record-breaking supernova last year.
Super luminous supernovas — extra bright stellar explosions — are believed to be rare. The newly discovered supernova is especially rare: It is more than twice as luminous as any supernova observed to date, including the previous record-holders.
At its peak intensity, it is believed to be 20 times more luminous than the entire Milky Way. Some estimates put it at 50 times brighter.
And try this statistic on for size: It is 570 billion times brighter at its peak than our sun.
Lead author Subo Dong of China’s Peking University said when he learned the magnitude of the discovery last summer, he was “too excited to sleep the rest of the night.” Fellow researcher Benjamin Shappee of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena, California, didn’t believe the results at first, which seemed “surreal.”
“Discoveries like this are the reason I am an astronomer,” Shappee said in an email. “Nature is extremely clever and it is often more imaginative than we can be.”
Labeled ASASSN-15lh for the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae and pronounced “assassin,” the mega blast is located in a galaxy perhaps 3.8 billion light-years away. The precise galaxy is unknown. There are other puzzles as well.
“The explosion’s mechanism and power source remain shrouded in mystery because all known theories meet serious challenges in explaining the immense amount of energy ASASSN-15lh has radiated,” Dong said in a statement.
The next step for scientists is to figure out its incredible power source. Other super supernovas, like this one, could be out there. More observatories are on the case, including some NASA spacecraft. The Hubble Space Telescope will be pressed into service this year as well.
Dong said ASASSN-15lh “may lead to new thinking and new observations of the whole class of super luminous supernova.”
This artist rendition provided by The Kavli Foundation (Jin Ma/Beijing Planetarium/The Kavli Foundation via AP)
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The universe stills holds many things for us to discover.
It’s clearly the “Death Star” fully operational. Don’t you guys watch Star Wars?
“Romulans have a new Plasma Disruptor”
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Beam me up Scotty!!!!
That’s right, and you are the queen!
The bigger the nova the denser the elements being created in that explosion. What might we find from a super super nova and can we do the same without a really big explosion?
Along with new discoveries AND Trump we will conquer all!
We are the United States of America!!!
We are in the surreal modes now guys!! Let’s do it!!!!!!!!!!!!
God Bless America AND Donald Trump !!
LOL ( ; > )
Have you ever though this bright lite could be God’s heavenliest
I am overwhelmed by it all. I most sincerely recommend to *all* and *anyone*. GOOGLE Moody Bible Institute. Download their CD catalog. Buy them !!!! Buy them!!!! Two (2) Moody videos/CDs………….”The Milky Way and Beyond”………..(and whatever is the companion to it)……..(dumb me, cannot remember right now)………….
I have watched them both………….scores of times……………..fallen asleep many, many, many, many times…………………musing about GOD’s greatness.
He has done this all………………………….for us.
“Ship”
Imagining it all is wonderous, however, what pic?
THE LORD GOD IS IT’S CREATOR, JUST LIKE HE IS OUR CREATOR AND THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING. WHY IS THAT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO RECOGNIZE?
I, for one, am an atheist. This is quite mind boggling but I see no need of a supernatural being to explain it or any other phenomena.
You may as well be a muslim for they have created allah a moon god one of 600 godes out of their minds to be their god so they can do as they please and no foul as long as it’s for the glory of a god that does not judge them. How can a non existent god judge, only a GOD that has walked the Earth and not in a muslim’s mind only, but walked and died and resurrected and witnessed as ascending into the heavens with a promise that he would return. He fulfilled the prophecy 300 years before allah. Mohammed wanted to be like Jesus so he forced his people to accept allah or be beheaded ,which he was known for and his followers still do so today. I as a vet in Viet Nam never heard one dying soldiers cry out for allah or buddha it was always help me GOD or help me Jesus. I suggest, you as a self proclaimed non believer , while you still have time research the facts not what a preacher may try to share in order for you to become the denomination that he or she represents but what the Bible has recorded for you to choose from your own intelligence.
Steve, I’m sorry bro, but you need to do your due diligence and start reading more books about atheists like yourself who thought that way until they began to study the complexities within our universe, from the multi layered DNA strands discovered by Francis Crick, the writings of Michael Denton; “Evolution, a theory in crisis”, and Dr John Stamatoyannopolis, from the University of Washington, who found a second code written on top of the first, creating an unbelievable depth to the level of complexity which all but rules out the notion that the code of all living creatures has happened by chance. There are not enough numbers in the universe to describe the actual chance that DNA could ever spontaneously generate by its own accord or by luck, or chance! I find that most doubters which includes any and all atheists have never once dedicated actual time to investigate the wealth of new data which supports the notion that any and all creatures of this planet could not have spontaneously materialized without the allowance thereof by an extraordinarily advanced intelligence beyond all reckoning which laid the foundations for all life as we know it through the breathtakingly complex computer program called DNA sequencing. Don’t be daft! Open your mind and let the truth enter in. You won’t be sorry that you did.
This event is so old and so far over with you can’t even imagine. It is light from 3.8 billion light-years away. It is incredibly ancient news.