spacetoday.net: Chandra sees most powerful supernova ever

Chandra sees most powerful supernova ever

Posted: Tue, May 8, 2007, 8:10 AM ET (1210 GMT)
Supernova explosion illustration (NASA)

Astronomers using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory have detected what they believe to be the most powerful supernova explosion ever, one that outshone its host galaxy. Astronomers said Monday that they believe a supermassive star, 150 times as massive as the Sun, exploded in a supernova 100 times as powerful as a typical supernova. The event, designated SN 2006gy, took place in a galaxy 240 million light-years away, and may be similar to the supernovae that ended the lives of the first generation of stars that formed after the Big Bang. Astronomers said that a star in our own galaxy, Eta Carinae, only about 7,000 light-years from the Earth, could explode in a similar spectacular fashion in the relatively near future.