The Biggest Star in the Universe Explodes Into a Supernova

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 Wolf-Rayet star, still undesignated, was estimated to have been around 6.7 million times the mass of Earth, burning at a temperature exceeding 50 000 degrees Celsius. The exact size is hard to estimate as stars of that size are essentially believed to be gaseous clouds that are only loosely held together by the immense forces of gravity.

This leads to exceptionally powerful solar winds, with three times the mass of Earth being discarded annually at speeds of ten million miles per hour.

The Wolf-Rayet class of giant stars are considerably rare and frequently obscured by other stars, planetoids, asteroids and cosmic phenomenon. As a result, little is known about them aside from their massive size, including how they are formed and how they die out.

As with any star, this giant spent its life fusing together hydrogen elements, creating the heavier compound of helium. The resulting energy of the fusion reaction was the only thing counteracting the massive amount of gravity from making the star collapse onto itself.

As the hydrogen runs out, the fusion reaction continues with the smaller trace elements creating an iron core so dense that continued fusion is impossible and the star runs cold and implodes.
The force of the subatomic particles collapsing onto itself releases in turn the energy to cause a huge explosion known as a supernova – an explosion so powerful it briefly outshines the entire galaxy in brightness.

The energy emitted in the massive explosion lasting mere hours is the equivalent of the energy the Sun would emit over its entire lifespan lasting billions of years.

The resulting shockwave expels the contents of the star, massive amounts of cosmic gas and debris, at speeds of up to one tenth of the speed of light. This massive expulsion of heavy chemical elements reacting to one another many astronomers theorize may be the origins of the building blocks of life.