When massive stars die, they go out in fiery explosions called supernovas. On rarer occasions, two nearly dead stars collide to create dimmer yet similarly intense kilonovas. On even rarer occasions, the supernovas and kilonovas overlap in a superkilonova—at least, that’s the best explanation at the moment. In a recent paper for The Astrophysical Journal […]
This Star Is Being Eaten Alive—and Its Explosive Death Will Be Visible in Broad Daylight
A case of astronomical fratricide is doomed to end in a fiery supernova bright enough to be spotted from Earth during the day. A study published this August in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society investigated a binary star system about 10,000 light-years from Earth called V Sagittae. Researchers finally solved the […]
Mind-Bending ‘Einstein Cross’ Reveals Ultrabright Supernova From an Unthinkable Distance
The supernova SN 2025wny is hopelessly far, lying approximately 10 billion light-years from Earth. Normally, this would make it impossible for astronomers to detect. But one team got lucky. While scanning the sky for cosmic transients, an international team of astronomers noticed two galaxies in the foreground of a giant blob of light. Further analysis […]
This Is What a Star Looks Like Just 26 Hours After It Explodes
Astronomers have captured a first-of-its-kind image of a massive dying star. Just 26 hours after the supernova SN 2024ggi was first detected in April 2024, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) pointed its Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile at the dramatic astronomical event. Supernovas are the explosive deaths of stars, and ESO’s VLT managed to […]
Star Meets Stunning End by Exploding Twice
Astronomers have, for the first time, witnessed a star meeting a dramatic end by exploding twice. In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers analyzed the centuries-old remains of supernova SNR 0509-67.5 with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, finding the first visual evidence of a star’s “double-detonation.” Most supernovae are the explosive result of […]