News Astronomy

A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’

The blast may have come from a collision of tiny neutron stars forged in a supernova

Three panels show different stages of a stellar explosion: A bright white flash on the left, two white dots nearing each other in the middle, and a reddish cloud on the right.

In a hypothetical superkilonova, a massive star explodes in a supernova (left). The explosion could leave behind two small neutron stars (middle), which then spiral together and emit gravitational waves before colliding and producing a kilonova (right).

K. Miller and R. Hurt/IPAC/Caltech

By Lisa Grossman

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