Many stars end their lives as bright explosions called supernovae. Some of these explosions are much brighter than typical and give off up to 100 times more energy. Astronomers call these “superluminous supernovae” and they don’t yet understand exactly what makes them super-bright.
Now, a team of researchers has proposed an origin story for one of these superluminous supernovae, SN 2006gy. They suggest that the explosion happened in a binary star system when a small, dense white dwarf star spiraled into the core of its giant star companion.
The researchers present their findings in a new paper published Jan. 23 in
Science.