News in Brief Cosmology

Brightest supernova breaks record

An exploding star (illustrated) detected on June 14 is the most powerful one seen to date —  600 billion times as bright as the sun.

M. WEISS, CXC, NASA

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

A stellar explosion that was first detected on June 14 is the brightest one seen so far, researchers report July 8 in the Astronomer’s Telegram. The supernova briefly shone with the light of roughly 600 billion suns, which is about five times as powerful as the previous record holder.