05-08-2007, 05:18 AM
Quote:·U.S. astronomers reported they had seen the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion.
·The star, SN2006gy, "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before."
·The observations suggest the star could blow up sooner than theorists had thought.
U.S. astronomers reported that they had seen the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion ever recorded, NASA announced on Monday.
Using a variety of Earth and space telescopes, astronomers found a giant exploding star that they figure has shined about five times brighter than any of the hundreds of supernovae ever seen before, said discovery team leader Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley. The discovery was first made last September by a graduate student in Texas.
Smith said the star, SN2006gy, "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before."
The observations suggest that the troubled and enigmatic star, thought to weigh in about 120 solar masses, could blow up sooner than theorists had thought.
Observations from the Chandra X-ray telescope helped show that it didn't become a black hole like other supernovae and skipped a stage of star death.
Unlike other exploding stars, which peak at brightness for a couple of weeks at most, this supernova, peaked for 70 days, according to NASA. And it has been shining at levels brighter than other supernovae for several months, Smith said.