Super-Supernova Released Ten Times More Energy than a Regular Supernova

Artist's conception of SN2016aps, a candidate pulsational pair instability supernova. The explosion energy of SN2016aps, fueled by the shedding of a massive shell of gas, was ten times that of a normal-sized supernova, making SN2016aps the most massive supernova ever identified. Credit: M. Weiss

It’s easy to run out of superlatives and adjectives when your puny human language is trying to describe humongously-energetic events in the Universe. So now it’s down to this: a really powerful supernova is a “super-supernova.”

But whatever name we give it, it’s a monster. A monsternova.

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