Putting the “Super” in Supernova

Image of most powerful supernova explosion ever recorded (SOURCE)

Within the past year, astronomers have made an incredible discovery about 4.5 million light years away from us. A supernova, but not just any supernova, the most powerful supernova recorded in history ever spotted by astronomers. This explosion is so powerful that astronomers did not even know that it was possible to have such a powerful supernova in our galaxy. The energy that was released from this supernova equated to about, “10 times more energy than the sun will emit during its entire lifetime,” truly putting into context the nature of such an explosion. According to astronomers researching this supernova, in order to create such a massive explosion the star must have shed a shell of material that made up about half of its mass before actually blowing up. This would mean that the explosion smashed through the shell, “like a wrecking ball,” at a speed of almost 4600 km/s which in turn would create a massive blast of radiation. Not only is this interesting that this supernova was the most massive one we have ever observed, but questions surrounding this explosion point to the fact that when modeling supernovas in the past we have never seen a star lose half of its mass about a decade before the actual explosion. This leads many astronomers to wonder what would have caused something like this to happen, and can potentially lead to us learning more about supermassive stars that may have existed in the early beginnings of our universe. Did you know that this discovery was made? Comment your reactions down below!