ASASSN-15lh

Wow! This is really wild! ASASSN-15lh is the designation for the most luminous supernova ever detected. It was discovered on June15, 2015 by telescopes in Cerro Tololo Chile of the Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Hence where the ASAS-SN) designation comes from. This telescope was surveying the southern constellation Indus for supernovae and this one blew the readings off the chart. It was 50 times the luminosity of the entire Milky Way Galaxy. It shown with the luminosity of 572 billion suns and it was estimated to be 200 times brighter than the usual supernova, which are bad enough as it is.

What's so frightening of this supernova is that fact that it happened 3.8 billion light years away. A normal supernova would kill everything on Earth if it were 30 light years away. This super duper supernova would kill everything in our galaxy if it happened in the Milky Way.

This supernova was at the peak possible brightness of supernovae, so it was a record breaker. Anything living in the galaxy it resided in would have been annihilated. In other words it was a killer star. It was not only brighter but also hotter than most Type 1 supernovae.

Interestingly, this massive explosion lacked evidence for hydrogen, which means that it blew the hydrogen away before it exploded. Astronomers are not sure how this is possible because it's not normal. One theory is that a nearby neutron star, perhaps even a magnetar, sucked the hydrogen away before the big red giant exploded.

Astronomers are not sure what galaxy this super bomb star was located. That job has been given to the Hubble telescope.

The thing to take away from this is that supernovae are necessary for life like ours to exist. Supernovae create the higher elements necessary to create planets like Earth. Without them, we wouldn't exist. On the other hand, supernovae can be killers. It one happens close enough to Earth it could wipe out all life here. There are large stars nearby that could go supernova. Hopefully, this won't happen for millions of years.

Thanks for reading.