Most-luminous supernova ever has been discovered

The supernova happened in a Galaxy far far away but it's calling into question our theories on these events.

The supernova was discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae team at Ohio State University who say it's the most-luminous supernova ever detected doubling the previous record.


Scientists believe that these super-luminous supernovae are caused by magnetars , stars extremely powerful magnetic fields , but the amount of energy released in this episode is calling that into question.

"When the first du Pont spectrum was available, as usual, I quickly checked what kind of supernova it was. To my surprise, I was not able to even tell for sure it was a supernova. My first reaction was: 'this is interesting, we should get more data,'" Morrell said. "It was only when we obtained higher resolution spectra from the Southern African Large Telescope and the Magellan Clay Telescope that I realized how distant the host galaxy is and consequently, how luminous the supernova."

"The astounding amount of energy released by this supernova strains the magnetar-formation theory," Shappee explained. "More work will be necessary to understand this extraordinary object's power source and whether there are other similar supernovae out there in the universe."
phys.org...

I wonder if it had an effect on the life-forms on the the other planets in that galaxy? If we can see it, then by now it has reached every star in that galaxy.

There has been myriad discoveries outside our tiny existence that is Earth recently, and it always astounds and excites. The technology we have now is just absolutely bonkers, and the numbers and distances involved sometimes give me brain freeze. Nice find

a reply to: gortex



It could be that the ultra-bright supernova: AKA, the most-luminous supernova ever observed, called ASAS-SN-15lh

is super ultra Luminious object named ASAS-SN-15lh is not really out-of-the- ordinary after all...
ASAS-SN-15lh is outrageously bright because of It's location in It's home Galaxy which itself might not harbor dense molecular clouds which would impede and diffuse the light rays from the SuperNova

Also the Location of ASAS-SN-16lh might be on the very outer edge of that home Galaxy so we would not be looking thru the Galactic Plane and all the other Suns & Planets which are bound to exist there

We just might be looking at the normal SuperNova output but at the optimum of all possible visibilities without having Its light diffused or obstructed....
exhaust all those factors before blowing in a new theory of a Super-Dooper MagnetStar rival

Shame they don't say how far away that supernova was from us. In the universe, distance = time, and if this galaxy is billions of light years away, the star that went super-bright-supernova could have been one of those early super-massive stars.

originally posted by: gortex
The supernova happened in a Galaxy far far away but it's calling into question our theories on these events.

Maybe it was just the result of Luke Skywalker getting that one-in-a-million shot off into the exhaust port of the death star.

a reply to: wildespace

www.skyandtelescope.com...

Spectra have confirmed that the object's blue-colored light has been traveling toward Earth for the past 2.8 billion years - See more at: www.skyandtelescope.com...

a reply to: gortex

Slayer,

I am so incredibly jealous of the awesome Articles you find online. How ever I am also incredibly grateful for the fact you bring them all to our attention.

I am absolutely enamored and terrified of Magnetars at the same time.

-Aesh

a reply to: Aeshma

Slayer,

gortex

a reply to: gortex

Omg Gortex, I am so ashamed of myself.

Words can not describe my embarrassment.

a reply to: Aeshma

It's not a problem mate , I take it as a compliment.

It's funny to come back to this specific place after reading about another member's brilliant post about the cult/religion of the Middle East known as Assassins, now a days. The reason I even mention this, there is a story concerning how these Assassins obtained their stronghold. End all be all, the leader of the Assassins tricked someone into buying a stronghold by promising exorbitant amounts of currency for land enough to be encompassed by a buffalo hide. This hide, upon acceptance, was cut into enough strands to surround the stronghold. Call it symbology. Call it what you will. It strikes me as wrenchingly coincidental. Hmph

These guys keep discovering how ignorant they are

When are they really going to learn the basic reality of their own ignorance?

When finally they do that they may learn something!