#superluminous

Brilliant New Supernova Shatters Cosmic Records For Brightness, Energy, And Even Mass

“Only perhaps a dozen superluminous supernovae have ever been observed, and this one takes the cake as far as its absolute brightness is concerned. In terms of brightness, energy, and the inferred mass of the progenitor star — whose best-fit estimate is over 150 times the mass of our Sun — no other supernova ever seen can compete. There really are stellar explosions out there so energetic that they outstrip anything ever seen before.

There's still so much to learn about these classes of objects: whether their afterglows are radioactive, how massive their progenitors are, whether they come from single or multi-star systems, and how frequently they occur. With the Vera Rubin Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope both coming online soon, we'll be able to detect, classify, and spectroscopically measure these objects more than halfway to the edge of the observable Universe. We've just seen the tip of the iceberg, and later this decade, we'll truly find out what lies beneath the surface of our cosmic ocean.”

Supernovae are normally some of the most energetic cataclysms in the entire Universe, emitting in one explosive outburst as much energy as the Sun emits over its entire 10 billion year lifetime. But some supernovae are superluminous: outshining even standard supernovae many times over. Well, we just broke all the records by unheard of margins, as SN2016aps was more than 500 times brighter than a typical supernova.

The Brightest Supernovae Of All Have A Suspiciously Common Explanation

“Either way, this represents a new step forward towards understanding the most energetic stellar cataclysms in the Universe: superluminous supernovae. Even though hydrogen was present in narrow lines, leading to an initial classification as a type IIn supernova, the full suite of data is better fit by a white dwarf core merging with a giant or supergiant's core, with the supernova's ejecta crashing into a large amount of circumstellar material that had been previously ejected.

While there's a whole lot we've learned from SN 2006gy, the closest superluminous supernova, many others have been seen with similarities, but none were close enough to detect iron lines so long after the initial explosion took place. Is a white dwarf merging with a giant or supergiant core the way all superluminous supernovae are created? Or is SN 2006gy rare, or do we perhaps even have it wrong after all? Whatever the case, we're one step closer to understanding what causes the most energetic stellar cataclysms ever seen in the Universe.”

In 2006, an explosion unlike any other was seen. A supernova went off in a galaxy some 238 million light-years away: in and of itself not such a big deal. But unlike previous supernovae, this one was about 100 times more energetic than normal: a superluminous supernova. More than a year after it was observed, so much light was still coming from it that astronomers were able to take a spectrum of it, and found emission line features that they’d never seen before. While most scientists assumed this was due to the core collapse of an ultra-massive star, a new analysis showed something different and unexpected: despite having hydrogen present, this matches the light-curve of a white dwarf-driven supernova, not a pair-instability supernova.

you may see the pink (shitty selfie but it’s the only one i have rn lol)