Massive Hypernova Reported

Massive Hypernova Reported Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/8/7615/70697 Content from DailyKos.com Astronomers have reported an enormously powerful supernova which may signal the demise of an ultra-massive star as much as 100-200 times heavier than the sun. Such stars are thought to be extraordinarily rare. Our own galaxy may contain only a few hundred such stars out of the estimated 400 billion that comprise the Milky Way. In a cascade of superlatives that belies the traditional cerebral reserve of their profession, astronomers say they had seen the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion ever recorded. ... Astronomers have been following the star since last September, when it was discovered in a galaxy 240 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The discovery was made by Robert Quimby, a University of Texas graduate student who was using a small robotic telescope at McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis, Texas, to troll for supernovas. Despite the mass of the hypothesized original star, the remnant core of SN2006gy does not seem to be forming a black-hole. One possible explanation is that in very massive stars, the gamma rays produced near the end stages of what would be a normal supernova are under such esoteric conditions that they form pairs of antimatter and matter particles. These particles then go on to obliterate each other tearing the star apart in the center and spray great quantities of hot, glowing star-stuff into nearby space. Scientists are eagerly watching events unfold on SN2006gy, in part to understand the first generation of stars to form shortly after the Big Bang, and to shed light on the mystery of another rare and poorly understood, incredibly violent phenomena called Gamma Ray Bursters. But one thing everyone can understand and agree on: the progenitor star is located in a galaxy 240 million light-years distant, the star must have exploded during the Permian Era, or about 240 million years before creationists believe the universe was created.