A Brand New Type of Supernova Was Just Discovered

[Judi Lynn]

by Matthew Hart
Aug 19 2019 • 7:00 AM



It seems like black holes or exoplanets are constantly in the news these days, as telescopes pick up more and more celestial objects in more and more detail. But supernovas haven’t been getting too much press lately, even though they’re just as spectacular as anything else going on in the universe. That may change now, however, because astronomers believe they’ve finally verified the existence of a whole new type of supernova that utterly annihilates its parent star without leaving behind a black hole, or even neutron star, in its wake.

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CNN picked up on the news of the observation of the as-yet-unseen type of supernova, which was made by researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) utilizing the Gaia space observatory satellite. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the researchers present evidence for what they believe is the observation of what is known as a “pair-instability supernova,” which only occurs in stars roughly 130 to 250 times as massive as the Sun.


More:
https://nerdist.com/article/new-supernova-star-exploded/

[dlk]

1. Wow-Truly Amazing! Thanks for Sharing