Star Explosion!

Astronomers have seen what could be the most powerful supernova ever detected.

12:18 17 January 2016

Astronomers have first observed a star explosion in June last year, which still radiates vast amounts of energy until now. They said that it could be the most powerful supernova ever detected, which is 570 billion times the brightness of the sun.

 

Prof Christopher Kochanek, from The Ohio State University, US, said: "The idea is that this thing at the centre is very compact. It's probably about the mass of our Sun, and the garbage into which it is dumping its energy is about five to six times the mass of our Sun, and expanding outwards at a rate of, let's say, 10,000km/s.

 

"The trick in getting the supernova to last a long time is to keep dumping energy into this expanding garbage for as long as you can. That's how you get maximum bang for your buck,"

 

He added: "It is an explosion and eventually all explosions have to fade.”

 

"If it never fades then our interpretation of the event would have to be wrong. On the other hand, if this interpretation is wrong then it's an even more unique object and so in some sense one would be perfectly happy living with that alternative."