Candidates for a Hypernova
What created these huge explosion remnants?
Speculation has been building recently that
outbursts even more powerful than well-known
supernovae might occur.
Dubbed
hypernovae, these explosions might result
from high-mass stars and liberate perhaps
ten times more energy than conventional
supernovae. A
hypernova was originally postulated to
explain the great amount of energy seemingly liberated in a
gamma-ray burst.
A
search for visible remnants of hypernovae
has now yielded the
above two candidates.
Nearby spiral galaxy
M101, shown on the right,
has two large expanding shells that might have originated from a hypernova. Remnant NGC 5471B on the
upper left and MF83 below were identified
by the unusually high amount of X-ray radiation they emit.
MF83 is also one of the largest
expanding shells ever found.
Research continues into the possible nature and
visibility of hypernovae and the gas shells
they likely leave behind.