A supernova is the explosive death of a star, briefly outshining an entire galaxy. There are two main routes: a massive star whose core collapses once it can no longer fuse elements, and a white dwarf that ignites after gathering too much matter from a companion. Supernovae forge and scatter heavy elements, seeding new stars and planets, and leave behind neutron stars or black holes. Some massive stars skip the explosion entirely and collapse straight into a black hole.
Cosmology · Stellar Death · Supernovae
For the first time, JWST identified the exact star that would become a supernova: a red supergiant hidden inside a cocoon of its own dust, blazing wit...
Astrophysics · Supernovae · Black Holes
A star 730 million light-years away brightened for four years, exploded, then exploded again. No human flagged it. An algorithm built to find the stra...
Astrophysics · Solar Neighborhood · Supernovae
A thousand light-years across, the Local Bubble is a cavity blown into the galaxy by a string of ancient supernovae. Our solar system is drifting thro...
Astrophysics · Supernovae · Magnetars
A billion light-years away, one of the brightest explosions in the universe pulsed with a rhythm that kept speeding up. That accelerating beat, astron...
Astrophysics · Stellar Evolution · Black Holes
Some massive stars do not end in a supernova. They flicker, fade, and quietly fall into the black hole they have just become. In Andromeda, astronomer...
Astrophysics · Supernovae · Stellar Evolution
On April 11, 2024, ATLAS detected a supernova within hours of explosion. A Beijing team raced to commandeer the VLT in Chile to measure its geometry, ...