50 Top 10 Lists of 2007

Top 10 Scientific Discoveries

#3. Brightest Supernova Recorded

Astronomers from University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas reported the largest and brightest stellar explosion, or supernova, ever observed. It was the first time scientists saw the death of a star as large as SN 2006gy, which was approximately 100 to 200 times the size of the sun — only about a dozen of the 400 billion stars in the Milky Way are estimated to be this massive. SN 2006gy collapsed into a black hole and exploded in a galaxy 240 million light years away, and was first spotted by a Texas grad student in 2006. By the time researchers published their paper in The Astrophysical Journal in May, the supernova had been observed in the sky for eight straight months. Astronomers believe SN 2006gy may offer clues to the spectacular way huge stars died in the early days of the universe — by converting some of their radiation into matter and antimatter particles, triggering a thermonuclear blast — and to the way a much closer big star, Eta Carinae, could explode soon, putting on the most brilliant night sky show modern astronomers will have ever seen.

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