Not your typical stellar explosion.
Most distant supernova reveals its secrets to scientists
A cosmic record breaker.
Millenniums-old rock art in India could be humanity’s first record of a supernova
India was into astrophysics before it was cool.
‘Zombie star’ cheats death again and again, dumbfounding scientists
A unique astronomical event is leaving many scientists scratching their heads.
For the first time ever, we’ve seen a black hole being silently born — no supernova required
Why blow up when you can mass up?
The first ever supernova-in-progress seen shows we don’t quite yet understand them
A really lucky find.
Scientists may have seen a black hole being born for the first time ever
Awww, it has your….mass.
Superluminous supernovas explode twice, create some of the most powerful magnets in the universe
When a star is ready to drop the curtain, it goes out with a bang — a supernova explosion. But some double the bang.
Ancient supernovae might have contributed to Earth mass extinction
Death from the heavens.
Supernova shockwave recorded for the very first time
Some stars go out with a bang — a supernova explosion! Using optical images recorded by the now defunct Kepler telescope, astronomers witnessed for the very time the shockwave that follows a star’s implosion once it runs out of fuel.
Astronomers detect biggest explosion we’ve seen
The star was observed for the first time in June, but it’s still radiating massive amounts of energy, making it shine 570 billion times stronger than our Sun.
Exploding supernova ejects enough material to seed 7,000 Earths
Everything is made of stardust – but some things are made of more stardust than others. A new study has found that a single supernova is capable of producing large enough quantities of dust to create thousands of planets like Earth.
Supernova flings star out of the Milky Way – it’s the fastest moving star ever
Astronomers have discovered a star racing at a incredible pace of 2.6 million miles an hour (4.2 million kilometers an hour), making it the fastest moving star discovered thus far. It’s so fast that it should exit our galaxy and turn into an intergalactic rogue. It doesn’t stop here. Such celestial oddities are believed to be spurred in motion by the extreme gravitational tugs found in the vecinity of supermassive black holes, such as the one found at the core of the Milky Way. The new found road runner, however, was most likely flung outward by a Type Ia supernova, one of the most powerful and brightest bursts of energy in the universe. Little is know about such stellar explosions, and the hypervelocity star might submit some valuable clues.
Nova seen Expanding right from the Beginning for the First Time
Here’s something you don’t see everyday – for the first time, astronomers witnessed how a nova is formed right from the onset, capturing and detailing its expansion. The white dwarf turned nova is located some 14,800 light-years away and its study is set to reveal many things about how novas form. The star is dead, long live the nova! Stars shine
Supernova study might change how speed of light in vacuum is measured
Einstein’s theories suggest that light can not travel faster than c, a constant equal to the speed of light in a vacuum, which is 299,792,458 metres per second (by definition) or about 186,282.4 miles per second. All of our standing physical models are based on this assumption, and so far this idea has yet to be proven wrong, despite the
Light from huge explosion 12 billion years ago reaches Earth
Intense light from a huge explosion (a gamma ray burst) that took place shortly after the birth of the Universe (12 billion years ago) has reached Earth, and was observed by researchers. Gamma Ray bursts are the strongest explosions since the Big Bang – in just 10 seconds, they release more energy than our sun in its entire life time; read
Astronomers observe spinning neutron star suddenly slowing down
In a never-before seen feat, astronomers using NASA’s Swift X-ray Telescope have observed a spinning neutron star suddenly slowing down, something which can provide valuable clues to understanding these mysterious objects. Neutron stars Neutron stars are the cores of former high-mass stars, the remains of supernovae after the blow-up. As the core of the massive star is compressed during a
Farthest supernova discovered by Hubble helps unravel Universe secrets
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have come across the farthest supernova of its type found thus far – a type Ia supernova which exploded some 10 billion years ago. The discovery isn’t just about setting milestones, however. Supernovae act as beacons that help astronomers measure the expansion of the Universe, and this latest finding will help deepen our understanding, especially concerning
New type of supernova discovered. Hint: it’s tiny and faint
Supernovae are highly energetic events caused by the explosion of stars that are at times so bright they can outshine whole galaxies. These are thought to occur in two varieties, but a recently published paper has a described a third type of supernova, one that’s fainter than the other two and distinguishes itself by the fact that its parent star
Rare supernova leftovers might have produced the youngest black hole in the Milky Way
Astronomers at NASA‘s Chandra X-ray Observatory were delighted to come across one of the rarest events in the Universe, after they came across an atypical kind of supernova. To top it over, the supernova’s remnants may have given birth to the Milky Way’s youngest black hole estimated thus far. After a massive star, say ten times more massive than our own
