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This is an artist's impression of the record-breaking, powerful, superluminous supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet located about 10,000 light-years away in the host galaxy of the supernova. Astronomers have witnessed a cosmic explosion about 200 times more powerful than a typical supernova -- an event that already ranks among the mightiest outbursts in the universe -- and more than twice as luminous as the previous record-holding supernova.
At its peak intensity, the explosion shone with 570 billion times the luminosity of the sun -- a luminosity level approximately 20 times the entire output of the 100 billion stars comprising our Milky Way galaxy. The record-breaking blast is believed to be an example of a "superluminous supernova," a recently discovered and very rare variety of explosion unleashed by certain stars when they die. Scientists are unsure of what sorts of stars and stellar scenarios might be responsible for these extreme supernovae. At around 3.8 billion light-years away, ASASSN-15lh is among the closest superluminous supernovae ever observed. Given its uncanny brightness and closeness, ASASSN-15lh may offer key clues in unlocking the secrets of this baffling class of celestial detonations.Image credit: Jin Ma, Beijing Planetarium
