One of the most extreme explosions in the universe are Type I superluminous supernovae. “They are one of the brightest explosions in the Universe,” says Joseph Farah, an astrophysicist at the ...

A distant supernova appears multiple times in the sky after its light bends through a galaxy. The strange effect may reveal clues about dark energy.

The light did not fade the way it was supposed to. After blazing into view about a billion light-years from Earth, the ...

Astronomers have discovered that the birth of neutron stars with magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's magnetosphere is the "magic trick" behind superbright supernovas.

Astronomers have for the first time observed the birth of a magnetar, a highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron star, directly linked to some of the universe’s brightest exploding stars. This ...

Their formation has been an object of debate, but new observations confirm the lead hypothesis: they are the product of incredibly bright supernovae. The rest of this article is behind a paywall.

This violent fate is rare: fewer than about 1% of stars are big enough to end their lives this way. Indeed, these dramatic explosions only occur in so-called “massive stars”. These are stars with a ...

Recent breakthroughs in science include solving a superluminous supernova mystery a billion light-years away, NASA's moon landing timeline risks due to SpaceX's delays, Spain's artificial cornea from ...

The mystery of superluminous supernovae has finally been solved, as researchers have conclusively linked these cosmic phenomena to magnetars.

A supernova, the explosive end of a massive star's life cycle, is among the brightest phenomena in the universe—typically ...

Researchers found a magnetic star core acting as a high speed engine to power a record breaking luminous supernova.

Superluminous supernovas, or ultra-bright cosmic explosions, have puzzled scientists for years. Recent studies of a supernova a billion light-years away reveal that a magnetar, a dense neutron star, ...