The brightest supernova ever seen was recorded by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The buzz around NASA is this was the king of all supernova (at least in our observable universe) and 100 times more violent than the average supernova. The star that exploded was an estimated 150 times more massive than our own sun, which is probably “as massive as a star can get.” If you want to try to get your head around the size of the explosion, compare it to atomic bomb the size of earth exploding within a balloon filled with explosive gas. What’s exciting about this new discovery is it gives us a glimpse into our Universe’s early years.

When our Universe was an adolescent it was quite the crazy kid and not the calm static-like universe that is observed today. One of the biggest mysteries was how all of this matter that is observable today appeared. In theory, the only “matter” that started out after the Big Bang was sub-atomic particles that coalesced into one element — hydrogen. Hydrogen eventually started clumping together forming denser and denser clouds of gas until it became dense enough to ignite itself from the immense heat of cramming the hydrogen atoms too close for comfort. Once a star “fires up” it starts forming other elements like helium, oxygen, carbon and the rest of the first 8 or so elements on the periodic chart. This is done by nuclear fusion, which is comparable to taking two or more elements and applying enough pressure that the nucleuses (protons and neutrons) fuse together forming a new element. The waste product from this fusion is tons and tons of energy/heat/light. The mystery comes into play when we start trying to figure out where all the other elements came from.

Unfortunately, the other elements were too heavy to be created from the nuclear fusion that happens within the normal stars core. Then some genius, don’t remember his name, came up with the supernova, or exploding star. Theoretically, this was enough energy to create the remaining elements, and the amount of violence to spread the newly formed matter across the Universe. But, there is a problem with this. If the Universe was then, like it is now (smaller longer lived stars), there is no way there were enough supernovas to create all this matter. And that my friend is where the “early Universe” theory comes into play.




The theory goes like this: The Universe started with a Big Bang, supposedly, and all this energy was thrown around within this empty [?] space birthing the above mentioned hydrogen particles. Now during this adolescent Universe, things were very active and the Universe was growing fast. Theoretically, stars were much more massive back in those days and formed extremely fast causing many large births and quick deaths. These quick deaths from these rare and massive type stars created these type “Ia” supernovas, just like the one recently recorded. So, with this new discovery, we can peer into what the Universe was like way, way back then. Hopefully, giving us the ability to see if our theories are correct, and if they can stand up to real evidence.

Then again, this could also not be from a massive stellar explosion. Doing some research for the article I came across this Associated Press article that claims the “brightest supernova” might be from a stellar collision of sorts. This may explain some strange phenomenon that cause confusion among scientists, like why there is little evidence of hydrogen during these type Ia supernova. The discussion among some scientists is that these Ia supernova are caused from mergers of White Dwarfs, which are stars that have burned up all their hydrogen, and red giants or other white dwarfs. Either way, this stuff is exciting. If we all keep in mind that we are built from the stuff of stars, literally, this is very fascinating stuff. It is as close to observing God’s chemistry lab as you can get with our current limited technology.