Dark Energy Survey spots exotic supernova
Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 05:30
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) —The first images taken by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) after the survey began in August 2013 have revealed a rare, 'superluminous' supernova that erupted in a galaxy 7.8 billion light years away. The stellar explosion, called DES13S2cmm, easily outshines most galaxies in the Universe and could still be seen in the data six months later, at the end of the first of what will be five years of observing by DES. The event was discovered by Andreas Papadopoulos, a postgraduate student from the University of Portsmouth, who will present the discovery at the National Astronomy Meeting 2014 in Portsmouth on Wednesday, 25 June.