SCIENTISTS SPOT BRIGHTEST SUPERNOVA YET, OUTSHINES MILKY WAY

AP ^ | January 15, 2016 | MARCIA DUNN

[NYer]

Astronomical, ping!

[dsrtsage]

Unprecedented. Result of global warming.

[PJBankard]

Would have been nice to have had some images, but the only one I could find was an illustration.

[UCANSEE2]

Here's a photo of it I took on my smartphone, while I was cruising near Saturn.

[UCANSEE2]

See #5

[central_va]

Up close....

[DannyTN]

I would post an image but at 500 billlion times brighter than the sun it would melt your screen and I don’t want to be responsible.

[Bryanw92]

I don't know.....I think the Galaxy is brighter.

[PJBankard]

LOL.

[soycd]

I built a fireworks shell like that once and I’m still waiting for it to cool down.

[central_va]

I used to like to watch satellites fly by.

[TXnMA]

The only source I can think of that might release that much energy might be high-speed, direct collision of the SMBHs at the cores of two colliding galaxies...

Doubtless, exposure to that much radiated energy would make the experiences of any life-forms in those galaxies, "interesting" -- but brief...

[The Cajun]

Not really that much info in the article, but something “big time” hit the fan billions on light years away.
Odd they can't identify the galaxy or maybe the supernova
is so bright, they can't see it yet.

[Bryanw92]

(Has nothing to do with the thread, but is better than a bunny with a pancake on its head.)

[Verginius Rufus]

If the supernova is 3.8 billion light-years away, then we are seeing what happened 3.8 billion years ago. No telling what it looks like now.

[Thibodeaux]

there is no way to prove the statements about brightest ever observed

[goldstategop]

Supergiant star at the end of its life having gone through the final stages of nuclear fusion - being left with an inert iron core that won’t fuse.

At some point gravitational collapse will happen and the star disintegrates, expending more energy in a runaway nuclear reaction than it did in its entire lifetime.

What’s left is either a supermassive black hole or a very dense, fast-spinning neutron star.

[UCANSEE2]

Although I didn’t cruise near Saturn, or take the picture, that is allegedly the real image of this recent supernova.

Your photo looks cool, but it is not the supernova in question.

[PJBankard]

I yanked it from the parent site of the article.