The brightest supernovae - and no one knows why

[Brian G Turner]

Mystery is inherent in science, but perhaps nowhere so obviously as in astrophysics.

And today's unexplained event? The brightest supernovae ever observed - and no one can figure out why.

We’ve found the brightest ever supernova but can’t explain it

The brightest supernova ever seen has been confirmed, but it still has astronomers puzzling over what unknown type of star could have been responsible.

Supernovas mark the violent deaths of stars that collapse on themselves and blow up. They are some of the brightest and most energetic objects in the universe.

This one, called ASASSN-15lh, is about 3.8 billion light years away, 200 times more powerful than most supernovas, and twice as bright as the previous record holder. It shines 20 times brighter than the combined output of the Milky Way’s 100 billion stars, and in the last six months, it has spewed as much energy as the sun would in 10 lifetimes, says Krzysztof Stanek of the Ohio State University, co-principal investigator of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) network that spotted the explosion.

“This is really on steroids, and then some,” he says. “If it was in our own galaxy, it would shine brighter than the full moon; there would be no night, and it would be easily seen during the day.”

 

[mosaix]

I saw this and, at first, thought 570bn times brighter than our sun was a typo. But then saw that it was brighter than the combined output of our entire galaxy. Just staggering!

 

[Vertigo]

What more can you say; awesome.

If something like that went off in the Milky Way, I wonder what our chances would be?

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

ASASSN,how creepy.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.03010.pdf

 

[J Riff]

Space, a well-lit place. Looks like we are seriously puny after all huh? Imagine the radiation coming off something like that... what would live near there?
Mile-tall cockroachs with a titanium shell ten feet thick? Maybe. )

 

[BAYLOR]

Space, a well-lit place. Looks like we are seriously puny after all huh? Imagine the radiation coming off something like that... what would live near there?
Mile-tall cockroachs with a titanium shell ten feet thick? Maybe. )

If there were habitable planets in the region of that Star, the energy and radiation would cook them.

 

[J Riff]

Inhabitable for soft bags of water, yuhp, therefore: Tough, them aliens. Weak, us humans. Pretty cool huh? IF there are aliens near there, and I'd guess yeah, why not.... they must be really really absurdely tough. Better hope they are friendly if they ever head thisaway.