Scientists Discover Brightest Supernova Ever Seen
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:
Scientists Discover Brightest Supernova Ever Seen:
Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian today announced the discovery and study of the brightest, most energetic, and likely most massive supernova ever identified.
SN2016aps is believed to be an example of a "pulsational pair instability" supernova, and may have formed as the result of the merging of two massive stars prior to the explosion. The explosion energy of SN2016aps was ten times that of a normal-sized supernova.
"SN2016aps is spectacular in several ways," said Edo Berger, Harvard University professor and co-author on the paper. "Not only is it brighter than any other supernova we've ever seen, but it has several properties and features that make it rare in comparison to other explosions of stars in the universe."
The team-made up of researchers from CfA, University of Birmingham, Northwestern University, and Ohio University-first identified the supernova in 2016 using data from the Panoramic Survey Telescopes and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). A four-year follow-up study tracked its slow evolution and significant energy release. Archival images retrieved during the study revealed a rising light curve dating back to December 2015, allowing the team to better understand the nature and explosion of the supernova.
In a typical supernova, radiation in visible light accounts for just one percent of the total explosion energy of 10^51 erg. In SN2016aps, the explosion energy of 10^52 erg is unprecedented, and the supernova radiated about 50 percent of this energy, making it outshine normal supernova explosions by 500 times.
"The intense energy output of this supernova pointed to an incredibly massive star progenitor," said Berger. "At birth, this star was at least 100 times the mass of our Sun."
Journal Reference
Matt Nicholl, Peter K. Blanchard, Edo Berger et al. An extremely energetic supernova from a very massive star in a dense medium, Nature Astronomy (DOI: doi:10.1038/s41550-020-1066-7)
Just today, I happened upon this two-page story ( https://theconversation.com/they-might-be-giants-a-mind-blowing-sense-of-stellar-scale-2153 ), which helps give some sense of scale to how inconceivably huge the universe is.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.