Powerful Supernova May Be Related To Death Spasms of First Stars 136
necro81 writes "The New York Times is reporting on a discovery from a team of UC Berkley researchers, who may have discovered the brightest stellar explosion ever observed. Observations of the cataclysmic explosion of a 100- to 200-solar-mass star began last September, based on data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The researchers believe that the explosion is similar to the death spasms of the first stars in the universe. The super-massive star's collapse is believed to have been so energetic as to create unstable electron-positron pairs that tore the star apart before it could collapse into a black hole — seeding the universe with heavier elements."
Oddity (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess they should say "might see if it went supernova soon."
Tom
Eta Carinae (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:we should we believe the astrophysicists now? (Score:1, Interesting)
Both, I have found, tend to be far too dogmatic in their beliefs on the debate (or, dare I say it, faith).
E.L.E (Score:4, Interesting)
Now that's an Extinction Level Event.
"Ooh! Aaah!" dead
Re:Eta Carinae (Score:2, Interesting)
Pair creation supernovae were predicted decades ago. The conditions for their formation are a bit strict and they do not appear to be very common at this point. Black hole creation is probably must more common. If we have seen one now, it is a good reinforcement of old theoretical work.
Re:E.L.E (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not endorsing this link http://people.roma2.infn.it/~aldo/dar01.pdf [roma2.infn.it] but it does corroborate what I've heard on TV science shows.
Re:Time-lapse video? (Score:3, Interesting)