So you're telling me we haven't seen it all?
I found this article from the National Science Foundation...
Link
Astronomers recently announced that they have found a novel explanation for a rare type of super-luminous stellar explosion that may have produced a
new type of object known as a quark star.
Three exceptionally luminous supernovae explosions have been observed in recent years. One of them was first observed using a robotic telescope at the
California Institute of Technology's (Caltech) Palomar Observatory.
...
These three supernovae, each 100 times brighter than a typical supernova, have been difficult to explain. The Canadian research team thinks the
explosions herald the creation of a previously unobserved and new class of objects, designated as quark stars.
A quark star is a hypothetical type of star composed of ultra dense quark matter. Quarks are the fundamental components of protons and neutrons, which
make up the nucleus of atoms. The most dense objects known to exist today are neutron stars--stars composed entirely of tightly packed neutrons. A
typical neutron star is some 16 miles across, yet has a mass one and a half times the mass of our Sun.
