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.

Astronomers have discovered a strange new signal coming from an exploding star — a “chirp” that speeds up over time, similar to the signals seen when black holes collide. The unusual pattern appeared ...

When most people think of a supernova, they're thinking of a Type II core-collapse supernova. These are massive stars that have reached the end of their time on the main sequence. They've used up ...

The discovery of a newborn magnetar inside a distant supernova helps explain why some stellar explosions shine far brighter ...

Scientists have revealed for the first time a jaw-dropping early view of an exploding supernova. Observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed ...

Astronomers may have found an exciting new clue about dark energy—the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. They discovered an extraordinarily bright supernova from more than ...

The light did not fade the way it was supposed to. After blazing into view about a billion light-years from Earth, the ...

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 ...

A supernova - the explosion marking the end of a massive star's life - is one of the brightest cosmic events, usually about a ...

The findings confirm a theory first proposed 16 years ago by University of California, Berkeley theoretical astrophysicist ...

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

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