Supernova Most Bright Ever Discovered
The brightest supernova ever seen has been confirmed, but still allows astronomers puzzling over what type of star that caused this very bright supernova.
Supernova marks the death of a star collapsing into themselves and explode. They are one of the objects of the brightest and most energetic in the universe.
This one, called ASASSN-15lh, about 3.8 billion light years away, is 200 times more powerful than most supernovae, and two times brighter than the previous record holder. This supernova shines 20 times brighter than the combined output of the Milky Way with 100 billion stars, and in the last six months, has been spewing as much energy as 10 times spit out the sun for life, said Krzysztof Stanek from Ohio State University, a co-principal investigator of All for supernovae Sky Automated Survey (ASAS-SN).
"Supernova this one really extraordinary" he said. "If the supernova is located in our own galaxy, then it will shine brighter than the full moon; there will be no night, and will be easily visible in the daytime."
Krzysztof Stanek saw outburst on June 14 when researching images of the telescope while drinking coffee in the morning, and reminded all teams ASAS-SN, including Subo Dong at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University. Dong quickly signaled a network of amateur astronomers who helped the team confirm the possible supernova, and received some pictures that night.
This supernova appears to be in an old galaxy is huge, bigger and brighter than the Milky Way, and is unusual because several other known supernova superluminous found in young galaxies were small and dim. Supernova is also much hotter than other stellar explosions.
Mammoth or magnetars
This anomaly does not mean that astronomers are not really sure what it was, said Stanek. "The analogy is, we have studied the elephant, and we have found the biggest elephant that ever existed," he said. "There is a possibility that is not an elephant, but the mammoth, a relic of the early universe"
Maybe it is different exotic object called a magnetar, a special type of neutron star with a powerful magnetic field. But ASASSN-15lh stronger than magnetars that are most likely, so it seems unlikely it is magnetar, said Steve Rodney at the University of South Carolina.
Another possibility is that this supernova is a stellar remnants were torn and devoured by supermassive black holes, or ordinary supernova that is being magnified by cosmic lens, an effect of gravity. But both theory it also seems unlikely, because the supernova that does not have hydrogen and helium will be the sign of the black holes that are 'eating', and the distance of the supernova is also relatively close, so it would not make sense if the supernova is magnified by a gravitational lens ,
ASASSN-15lh just move to the back of the sun, but astronomers have taken a new data using the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer. Furthermore, astronomers are awaiting data from observations of Hubble is expected to give astronomers insight into the origins of the strange object. Stanek said he wanted to hear the new theories about what kind of star it was.
"When you see something you have never seen before, you feel happy," he said. "It's something that does not often happen".
