The brightest supernova ever recorded may have been triggered by an exotic process involving antimatter in an extremely massive star, a new study says. The explosion may offer a rare glimpse of how the universe's first generation of stars died. The explosion was first spotted on 18 September 2006 and named SN 2006gy. It quickly became apparent that it was something out of the ordinary. To begin with, it broke the record for the intrinsically brightest supernova ever recorded. It now appears to have been an extremely massive star meeting its end in a highly unusual way that involves the production of antimatter. With 100 times the energy of a typical supernova explosion, SN 2006gy was simply too energetic to be explained by the explosion of a lightweight object like a white dwarf star. Research theory suggests that super massive stars (in the area of 150 times the mass of SOL) may not collapse in the same manner as normal supernova, but instead be ripped apart by much more exotic forces.Click on the title to read the complete story
submitted by Shaun Saunders
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