Supernovas

As measurements of distant stars and galaxies become more precise, cosmologists are struggling to make sense of sparring values.

Astronomers thought they had solved the mystery of gamma-ray bursts. A few recent events suggest otherwise.

Cosmologists are using secondary signatures from the cosmic microwave background to map the universe’s hidden matter.

Type Ia supernovas are astronomers’ best tools for measuring cosmic distances. In a first, researchers have managed to re-create one on a supercomputer, giving a boost to a leading hypothesis for how they form.

These ultrabright flashes have recently been tracked for days, upending ideas about the cataclysms that create them.

A supernova-like explosion dubbed the Camel appears to be the result of a newborn black hole eating a star from the inside out.

Small black holes were nowhere to be found, leading astronomers to wonder if they didn’t exist at all. Now a series of findings, including a “unicorn” black hole, has raised hopes of solving the decade-long mystery.

Three-dimensional supernova simulations have solved the mystery of why they explode at all.

A recent neutron star merger has defied astronomers’ expectations, leading them to question longstanding ideas about neutron stars and the supernovas that create them. “We have to go back to the drawing board.”