https://www.sciencealert.com/this-exploding-star-was-the-most-powerful-we-ve-ever-spotted Astronomers Detect The Most Powerful Star Explosion We've Ever Observed MICHELLE STARR 14 APRIL 2020 Massive stars don't die quietly. Their deaths are spectacular explosions that can outshine entire galaxies - and now, astronomers have identified the most powerful of these exploding stars we've ever witnessed. The supernova, named SN2016aps, was observed by the PanSTARRS Survey for Transients on 22 February 2016, in a galaxy 4.5 billion light-years from Earth. Now, astronomers have determined that SN2016aps was 500 times brighter than typical supernova explosions. It is, they say, the brightest, most energetic and maybe even the most massive supernova we've ever seen - pushing it towards the category of hypernova. "SN2016aps is spectacular in several ways," explained astronomer Edo Berger of Harvard University. "Not only is it brighter than any other supernova we've ever seen, but it has several properties and features that make it rare in comparison to other explosions of stars in the Universe." Although it peaked in January 2016, observations of SN2016aps were not limited to that timeframe. After the supernova was spotted in the PanSTARRS data, astronomers kept a careful eye to observe how the object dimmed over time, a process that's still occurring. They also looked into data obtained before that January 2016 peak, and saw that SN2016aps had been brightening in the weeks prior to the big kaboom, dating back to December 2015. more at link.................. The research has been published in Nature Astronomy.
