The findings confirm a theory first proposed 16 years ago by University of California, Berkeley theoretical astrophysicist Dan Kasen. Kasen and his colleagues hypothesized that at least some ...

The newborn magnetar, a specific kind of neutron star, actually enhances the brightness of a supernova.

Astronomers have discovered that the birth of neutron stars with magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's magnetosphere is the "magic trick" behind superbright supernovas.

Superluminous supernovas are the brightest stellar explosions in the universe. Astronomers may have found a mechanism that can trigger these events.

Astronomers have for the first time seen the birth of a magnetar—a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star—and confirmed that it's the power source behind some of the brightest exploding stars in the ...

Researchers found a magnetic star core acting as a high speed engine to power a record breaking luminous supernova.

Every star’s death is dramatic. Superluminous supernovae take the theatrics to another level. In the early 2000s, scientists first saw these conspicuous cataclysms, which can shine much longer and ...

Researchers say the "powerful engine" behind superluminous exploding stars had been hidden for years — until a "chirp" from the cosmos helped confirm their link.

The light did not fade the way it was supposed to. After blazing into view about a billion light-years from Earth, the supernova known as SN 2024afav settled into something stranger. Its brightness ...

A cosmic mystery surrounding the universe's most dazzling explosions, superluminous supernovas, appears to have been solved by scientists studying a colossal stellar event a billion light-years from ...

Researchers report superluminous supernova SN 2024afav whose erratic behavior supports a long-standing theory of stellar ...