[NYer]

Astronomical, ping!

[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.

[soycd]

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

[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.

[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.

[SunkenCiv]

Ooops, and thanks NYer! BFL.

[minnesota_bound]

It is the glow from the planet Starkiller.