The Biggest Star in the Universe Explodes Into a Supernova

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Artistic representation of a supernova in progress.

Scientists using new sky survey technology confirmed for the first time that a star 20 times the mass of the Earth's sun exploded into a massive supernova.

The star of the so called Wolf-Rayet class, the biggest stars in existence, was situated 360 million light years away in the Bootes constellation when scientists managed to catch sight of it mere hours after exploding into a massive supernova designated SN 2013cu.

The observations made are believed to be a breakthrough in observing the self-destruction process of giant stars preceding the supernova stage. The findings were recently published in Nature by scientists of the Israeli Weizmann Institute of Science led by Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam.

Thanks to new developments in interstellar observation capabilities developed at the US Department of Energy, astronomers are now able to study supernovae such as SN 2013cu in nearly real time, something previously believed to be impossible due to limitations of imaging technology.

see more at http://www.chinatopix.com/articles/2603/20140524/biggest-star-universe-explodes-supernova.htm