Massive Star Explosion Wows Astronomers

F My Life: It's Funny, It's True, Except When It Happens to You

Astronomers have found a previously-unseen kind of star explosion they think may have originated from an unusually large stellar body.

This type star explosion has been speculated upon, but is has never before been witnessed. This was like any other supernova, which typically signals the end of a star's life, but this star initially might have had 200 times the mass of our own sun.

This supernova, called SN2007bi, was spotted back in 2007 in a nearby dwarf galaxy. Scientists could tell that it was a special one as it was around 50 - 100 times brighter than a regular supernova.

After inspecting it more closely, astronomers published a paper in the December 3 issue of the journal Nature confirming that it matches theoretical predictions of a so-called pair-instability supernova.

Previously, it was uncertain if they even existed.

In a pair-instability supernova, the star is close to death and has used up its main supplies of hydrogen and helium, leaving just an oxygen core. In smaller stars, the core keeps burning until it collapses into a Type II supernova, leaving behind a black hole or neutron star.

In the case of this type of star, however, while its core is still made of oxygen, it releases photons that manufacture pairs of electrons and positrons, which are their anti-matter opposites.

When the matter and antimatter collide, they destroy each other in Star Trek fashion. This process lowers the star's pressure, and it collapses, which ignites the oxygen core in a nuclear explosion that eats up the whole star, leaving absolutely no remnant at all.

Confirming that they exist may be one of the most significant scientific discoveries of this decade.