Chart-Topping Supernova
Most supernovas start out strong and fade fast, but not SN2006gy. First observed last September, this extraordinary cosmic fireball—the largest and brightest yet—reached full brightness 70 days later and remained 100 times brighter than a typical supernova for more than three months.
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Most supernovas start out strong and fade fast, but not SN2006gy. First observed last September, this extraordinary cosmic fireball—the largest and brightest yet—reached full brightness 70 days later and remained 100 times brighter than a typical supernova for more than three months. Still burning as bright as a typical supernova, SN2006gy seems to have resulted from the collapse of a huge star, 100 to 200 times the sun's mass, in a process that leaves behind no black hole. Researchers, who have submitted their work to The Astrophysical Journal, gauged the collapsing star's size from measurements of the star and its host galaxy, NGC 1260, taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory [lower right]. An infrared view from California's Lick Observatory [lower left] rounds out the image of this stellar wonder.
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