This Cosmic Explosion Could Be 10 Times as Big as a Supernova

Supernovae are big, but magnetorotational hypernovae are even bigger.

Transcript

00:00 Supernovas, or when stars explode, are massively energetic events that have the ability to

00:09 change the very galaxies in which they reside.

00:12 But now experts say they've discovered an explosion that's even bigger, to the tune

00:16 of ten times a supernova.

00:17 According to Science Alert, certain heavy elements are thought to only have been created

00:21 through the merger of two massive neutron stars, called a kilonova.

00:25 But in the Milky Way's halo, there is a star called SMSS J2003-1142.

00:31 Within that star, there are some of these heavy elements.

00:33 But now scientists theorize they weren't produced by two neutron stars colliding, but

00:37 rather by the collapse of a fast-rotating star with an extreme magnetic field, oh, and

00:42 about 25 times the mass of the Sun.

00:44 They're calling the event a magnetorotational hypernova, and it could explain how these

00:49 heavy elements smashed into existence earlier than previously thought possible.

00:52 So why is star SMSS important?

00:55 Well based on levels of other elements, scientists can tell it's chemically pretty primitive,

00:59 meaning it should be too young to have the heavy elements produced by a neutron star

01:02 merger.

01:03 So they must have come from its parent star, during a hyper-explosive, magnetorotational

01:07 hypernova.

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01:12 (upbeat music)