Astronomers spot superluminous supernova 10 billion light-years away
July 21 (UPI) -- Researchers have identified a superluminous supernova located 10 billion light-years from Earth. It is one of the brightest and most distant star deaths ever recorded.
Because the intense radiation produced by the supernova has been traveling for 10 billion years, it offers astronomers a glimpse of the universe's past -- a snapshot of the cosmos as it was just 3.5 billion years after the Big Bang, a time period known as "cosmic high noon."
During cosmic high noon, the universe's young galaxies began churning out stars at a prodigious rate.
Superluminous supernovae, sometimes called hypernovae or SLSNs, are much rarer than other types of supernovae. They're also 10 to 100 times brighter. Astronomers have struggled to determine what exactly makes the massive star death different than other stellar failures.
Read more: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2017/07/21/Astronomers-spot-superluminous-supernova-10-billion-light-years-away/9411500665726/
Though the superluminous supernova is extremely bright, it appears faint because it is located 10 billion light-years away. Photo by D. Gerdes and S. Jouvel/UCSC