New study suggests long ago brightest star explosion was rapid type Ia supernova
(Phys.org)—Over a thousand years ago, an explosion in faraway space occurred that was so bright that people reported being able to read by its light at midnight. The year was 1006 and the explosion was, scientists believe now, a supernova, or more accurately, a type Ia supernova, the kind that produce the biggest or brightest explosions. But what kind of Ia supernova was it? Astrophysicists believe there are two kinds, those that happen slowly, and those that happen very rapidly. Now new research by a team in Spain suggests it was the latter after scanning the area of sky where the explosion is believed to have occurred and not finding any evidence of a companion star left behind, which would indicate a slow moving event. They have published a paper describing their study in the journal Nature.