supernovas

Double Cosmic Explosion Gives Birth to Unprecedented ‘Superkilonova’

In a strange turn of events, a supernova birthed twin baby neutron stars that merged to make a powerful kilonova.

This Star Is Being Eaten Alive—and Its Explosive Death Will Be Visible in Broad Daylight

Researchers have figured out why V Sagittae is so gosh dang bright.

Mind-Bending ‘Einstein Cross’ Reveals Ultrabright Supernova From an Unthinkable Distance

For the first time, astronomers have captured the brilliance of a superluminous supernova via gravitational lensing.

This Is What a Star Looks Like Just 26 Hours After It Explodes

Astronomers have captured a supernova in its earliest stages—and the aftermath is unexpectedly olive-shaped.

New Research Throws the Ultimate Fate of the Universe Into Question

The popular consensus among scientists is that the universe will continue expanding until the bitter end. A team of researchers is now pumping the brakes on that idea.

Mysterious Signals From Deep Space Expose Aftermath of Failed Cosmic Eruptions

Two international teams zoned in on a potential answer to a decades-long mystery surrounding ephemeral cosmic X-rays.

Star Meets Stunning End by Exploding Twice

A white dwarf star exploded in a "double-detonation," an apparent first for astronomy.

NASA’s Flagship X-Ray Telescope Back Online After Last Week’s Safe Mode

One of NASA’s flagship telescopes, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, went into safe mode last week following gyroscope problems. That telescope is now back up and running. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory collects x-rays from high-energy sources in outer space, producing incredible images of supernovae, nebulae, pulsars, and other astrophysical oddities. The telescope entered safe mode last…

Rare Type of Supernova Extinguishes Star at Unprecedented Speed

Supernovae produce some of the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, expelling a doomed star’s contents at velocities reaching 10 percent the speed of light. It usually takes a few weeks or months for a supernova to fade into nothingness, but astronomers have now documented a record-setting case in which a star was extinguished in…

A Stellar Explosion Could Be Visible In the Night Sky In 2022

It’s not often that a new body appears in the night sky—aside from meteors and the occasionally comet, things tend to look pretty much the same. Now, astronomers predict that a pair of stars so close they’re basically touching will collide and create a so-called red nova, resulting in a bright explosion visible to the…

Melting M&M’s Look Like Exploding Supernovas

Drop a couple of M&M’s in a petri dish filled with water, point a Sony A7R M2 camera at the experiment capturing a 4K timelapse, and what you get is some remarkably beautiful footage of the colorful candy coating melting away. Without the ‘m’ stamped on each candy, you would almost assume this was footage…

Brightest Supernova Ever Seen Was Actually Something Much Darker

Last year, astronomers recorded the brightest supernova explosion ever seen. Follow up observations now suggest this cataclysmic event wasn’t a supernova at all, but rather, an extremely rare celestial phenomenon involving a supermassive black hole and a rather unfortunate star. In 2015, astronomers participating in the the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) witnessed…

Imposter Supernova Has Erupted At Least Three Times

The star system Eta Carinae has puzzled astronomers for centuries because of its oddly variable brightness—as bright as a supernova explosion at one point in the 19th century. Now astronomers from the University of Arizona have determined that there were at least two earlier explosions in the star’s long history, making this a very strange…

Astronomers Have Predicted an Exploding Star’s Appearance For the First Time Ever

Stars explode on a fairly regular basis, but they’re virtually impossible to predict. Now, for the first time ever, astronomers have captured an image of supernova they knew was coming. Here’s how they did it. It may sound weird, but this is the third time that astronomers have observed this particular supernova. Owing to a…

This Is How We Know a Supernova Is Coming in 2016 

In early 2016, astronomers will be looking at a specific part of the sky, knowing with near certainty that a supernova will appear. How is it possible to predict such events? The answer has to do with an effect known as gravitational lensing. Technically, the 2016 supernova is a “replay” of the supernova Refsdal, first…

Meanwhile in the Future: Death By Supernova

We often think of stars as twinkling, harmless little points of light that fill our night sky with majesty. But stars can be dangerous too. When they come to the end of their lifespan, some stars explode fantastically as supernovae. So what would happen if one of those giant explosions happened nearby? This week’s scenario…

How To Photograph An Exploding Star

This is SNR E0519-69.0, an expanding shell of debris around a star that exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. The red lines are the outer edges of the explosion (visible light) and the blue glow is the superhot gas (millions of degrees hot, in X-Ray). This is just…

A new supernova has been discovered in the bright Virgo galaxy M61. It was discovered Wednesday by Koichi Itagaki of Japan, and at a magnitude of 13.6, it could soon become visible in smaller telescopes. Today it was confirmed as a Type Ia-pec supernova. More to come as we learn more! Image credit: Ernesto Guido,…

All the most amazing supernovas ever photographed

NASA has revealed spectacular, newly reprocessed images of four of the most amazing supernovas ever captured by a human science instrument—the Crab Nebula (top), Tycho, G292.0+1.8, and 3C58—to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Chandra observatory. I decided to go one step further and collect them all. We have detected other supernova, but I have…

What A Supernova Looks Like Just As It’s About To Blow

You’re looking at the first ever 3-D model of a supernova entering into the initial phase of its cataclysmic death throes. This is part of a new computer simulation that’s radically changing our notions of what happens inside stars just before they explode. The 3D model was put together by W. David Arnett, Regents Professor…