Giant exploding star outshines previous supernovas

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/07/supernova/index.html


Scientists believe supernova SN 2006gy expelled many of its outer layers in an eruption before its violent collapse.

Wow, thats cool.

Part of their difficulty in dealing with this phenomenon in theory is that they don't even know if they have anything to compare it with. Some are guessing maybe Eta Carinae might be a similar object. I'll have to nose around to see what the theoretical lifespan of a 150 Msun star as a main-sequence object would be. Shockingly brief, I suspect.

So... Eta Carinae and this object: Type III supernovas, anyone?

Very cool stuff. Keep looking up.

Urbane Guerrilla;342139 wrote:

I'll have to nose around to see what the theoretical lifespan of a 150 Msun star as a main-sequence object would be. Shockingly brief, I suspect.

On the cosmic scale, I'd say roughly equivalent to a firecracker. A very bright blue firecracker.

Wiki's Star entry, with some passing mention of star lifespans. Scroll down a bit less than halfway to "Mass."

It gives a lifespan of roughly a million years for 150 M[SIZE="1"]sun.[/SIZE] Several million years for 100 M[SIZE="1"]sun.[/SIZE]

It points out why 150 solar masses seems to be the upper limit, too. Any bigger, and the star can't radiate its energy output through its photosphere fast enough -- which means it blows off its outer layers, apparently until stability is reached, at a lower burning rate. Putting it mildly.