Supernova Discovery
An international team of astronomers studying data from the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope has announced the discovery of a rare and extremely bright supernova. Researchers concluded that the colossal energy boost this explosion received came from a magnetar formed during the gravitational collapse of the star.
Technical Details
The object of study was the star SN 2017egm, which flared up in the galaxy NGC 3191 at a distance of about 440 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. Despite the vast distance, this explosion is one of the closest to us among events of its class.
Industry Impact
This explosion belongs to the category of hypernovae (superluminous supernovae). Over the past 20 years, astronomers have identified about 400 similar anomalies, each of which emits at least 10 times more radiation in the visible range than a typical dying massive star.