A supernova is the biggest explosion possible that you could ever imagine in a lifetime. Or actually, it’s one that you could NEVER imagine since it’s so tremendously big and powerful that it’s almost beyond human comprehension. But oddly enough, there is creation occurring in the Universe even during destruction. Supernovas can lead to an outburst of stars being born from the enormous amounts of gas.
Supernovas are practically stars exploding after they consume all of their fuel. Trying to find the most violent existing supernova has been a strong challenge for astronomers, but now they believe they got a reliable competitor.
The ‘SN2016aps’ supernova is the most violent one ever spotted
Edo Berger from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts found the SN2016aps supernova together with his colleagues by using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii. With this supernova releasing about ten times more energy than our Sun does in its entire lifetime, the discovery shocked the astronomers. Berger even said:
Until now it wasn’t clear that explosions this powerful were even possible,
The scientist goes on by asking:
The big question mark is, how did a star, about a decade before it exploded, lose half of its mass? It’s not something we see in the models
There can always be something bigger
This can be considered a golden rule of the Universe. Judging by the fact that it’s far bigger than anyone could ever imagine, there can always be discovered a phenomenon more impressive than a previous one. The observable Universe has about 96 billion light-years in diameter, but it can actually be a million times bigger than what humanity can see with its most powerful telescopes. Adding the Multiverse theory to the big picture, you can easily conclude how outrageously enormous our physical reality is.
Therefore, an even more violent and big explosion of a star can one day outdate the SN2016aps supernova. Until that day, we should consider ourselves lucky to be far away from the terrifying SN2016aps star explosion: 4.5 million light-years.
