초신성(超新星)《변광성(變光星)의 일종》충돌(나사발표)

NASA registers explosion of brightest supernova

This artist's illustration provided by NASA shows what the brightest supernova ever recorded, known as SN 2006gy, may have looked like when it exploded.

 

 

The star "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before," the discovery team leader Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley told The Associated Press.

 

 

"It blew the core of the star apart, blew it into smithereens, sending all those heavy metals into space" at a speed of about 9.3 million miles per hour, Smith said.

 

 

And it has been shining at levels brighter than other supernovae for several months, Smith said. The discovery was first made last September by a graduate student in Texas