New Class of Objects Created By Record-Breaking Supernova

 

Researchers recently found a transient that outshines all others like it—a supernova known as AT2020mrf. They described their discovery in a paper posted on the preprint server arXiv.org last December and submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. They also presented it at a virtual press conference at the 2022 American Astronomical Society meeting in January. This supernova was one of the brightest and most energetic stellar deaths ever seen, and it might provide a rare glimpse into how massive stars give birth to some of the universe’s strangest objects: black holes and neutron stars.