Distant Supernova Is the Most Powerful Ever Detected (osu.edu)

schwit1 writes: Newly published research into a supernova under observation since June has found it to be the most powerful known to modern science. "This one, called ASASSN-15lh, is about 3.8 billion light years away, 200 times more powerful than most supernovas, and twice as bright as the previous record holder. It shines 20 times brighter than the combined output of the Milky Way's 100 billion stars, and in the last six months, it has spewed as much energy as the sun would in 10 lifetimes, says Krzysztof Stanek of the Ohio State University, co-principal investigator of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) network that spotted the explosion." The explosion doesn't fit well with current theories of supernova energy release, so astronomers are working to figure out its unusual mechanics.

Comments

I'm not

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not saying that it's aliens... But it's aliens.

Re:Most powerful ever detected

[sims 2]

You mean they've already destroyed themselves with supernova weapons so we can't find them?

Re:Can I see it?

[__aaclcg7560]

You need to go to the southern hemisphere to look it up in the Indus constellation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASASSN-15lh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_(constellation)

Only one explanation

[The Evil Atheist]

Their version of Donald Trump got elected.

Re:Only one explanation

[Black Parrot]

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if billions of heads just exploded.

Re:Holy. Shit.

[Mostly a lurker]

If you think that's bad, you should see the power bill

By my reckoning, at $0.15 per kWh, that would come to $15,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or roughly 800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times the US national debt. Perhaps, they would allow you to pay this off in installments.

How much energy?

[MiniMike]

It shines 20 times brighter than the combined output of the Milky Way's 100 billion stars, and in the last six months, it has spewed as much energy as the sun would in 10 lifetimes

Seriously, how about some meaningful units we can comprehend here? How many times the energy usage of the Library of Congress is this?

Re: By orders of magnitude, which means stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

Note that the 56Ni Gamma lines were seen, but lasted longer than normal models predict, which means that by some process, 56Ni was continuing to be produced.
No theory or model currently can account for this. (56Ni->56Co->56Fe with a total half life of ~83 days. Significant 56Ni was still being seen after six months.)

Captcha: marvels