At the centre of the Crab nebula — the remnant of a supernova that exploded nearly 1,000 years ago — a spinning, magnetized neutron star is slowly injecting energy into the surrounding gas cloud, lighting it up. A similar, but more extreme, physical process may explain the super-luminous supernovae observed by Nicholl and colleagues. A neutron star spinning ten times faster than the one in the Crab nebula, and with magnetic fields 100 times stronger, would inject its spin energy much more rapidly, within a few months, and shine more than a million times more brightly.
<br />
X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO/F. SEWARD; OPTICAL: NASA/ESA/ASU/J. HESTER & A. LO LL; INFRARED: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. MINN./R. GEHRZ
At the centre of the Crab nebula — the remnant of a supernova that exploded nearly 1,000 years ago — a spinning, magnetized neutron star is slowly injecting energy into the surrounding gas cloud, lighting it up. A similar, but more extreme, physical process may explain the super-luminous supernovae observed by Nicholl and colleagues. A neutron star spinning ten times faster than the one in the Crab nebula, and with magnetic fields 100 times stronger, would inject its spin energy much more rapidly, within a few months, and shine more than a million times more brightly.
X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO/F. SEWARD; OPTICAL: NASA/ESA/ASU/J. HESTER & A. LO LL; INFRARED: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. MINN./R. GEHRZ
 

Massive stars end their lives in spectacular explosions called supernovae. These explosions pollute the Universe with all of the heavier chemical elements we see around us, such as oxygen and iron.  They are billions of times brighter than the Sun.

It has been known for decades that the light from many of these events stems from radioactive material. Recently, however, some very unusual supernovae have been found, which are too bright to be explained in this way. These supernovae are hundreds of times brighter than those found over the last fifty years, and yet they have only recently come to the attention of supernova hunters.  The origin of their extreme luminosity is still a mystery.

"We got early observations of one of these supernovae, for example with the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma. These data does not at all fit with the previous models of these explosions," says Jesper Sollerman, professor at the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University, and one of the co-authors of the article.

Prof. Stephen Smartt, of Queen’s University, added: “These are really special supernovae. Because they are so bright, we can use them as torches in the very distant Universe. Light travels through space at a fixed speed, as we look further away, we see snapshots of the increasingly distant past. By understanding the processes that result in these dazzling explosions, we can probe the Universe as it was shortly after its birth.

Our goal is to find these supernovae in the early Universe, detecting some of the first stars ever to form and watch them produce the first chemical elements created in the Universe.”

The study is led by Matt Nicholl at Queens University and also includes Francesco Taddia and Giorgos Leloudas from the Oskar Klein Centre.