We are finding that the universe is such an extraordinarily energetic place that it leaves us at a loss for superlatives.
Take the latest discovery announced on Wednesday in the journal Nature: Astronomers have uncovered a new class of objects they are calling "ultra-luminous supernovas."
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But hold on. Supernovae -- exploding massive stars -- are the biggest bangs since the Big Bang. Their light flashes across billions of light-years like cosmic flashbulbs: it's brief and intense.
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A supernova sky survey called the Palomar Transient Factory, has uncovered four of these super-duper explosions that are ten times brighter than normal supernovas, and unusually bluer. Using stellar forensics, a team of astronomers also reclassified two previously mysterious flashes in the night as belonging to the same new class of brighter-than-bright supernovas.
"Our survey is finding a new ultra-luminous supernova every two weeks," Shri Kulkarni of Caltech told Discovery News. Statistically, that means that one in every 10,000 normal supernova is, well, a super-supernova.
How does nature make an explosion that seems far more powerful than conventional supernovas that commonly arise from the implosion of a iron core inside a massive star?
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