This Is The Most Distant Confirmed Supernova Ever Observed

This Is The Most Distant Confirmed Supernova Ever Observed

Supernovae are already some of the brightest explosions in the universe - but there's a more mysterious type, called superluminous supernovae, that can shine a hundred times brighter than the usual ones. And on 22 August 2016, astronomers spotted one whose light travelled over 10 billion years to reach us.

The discovery of the event, called DES16C2nm, was exciting enough on its own since it would normally have been invisible to telescopes if not for the fact that the universe is expanding, thus stretching the light from the explosion into wavelengths we can see from Earth. More generally, these flashes can tell the story of our universe, such as what kinds of stuff lives between stars in distant galaxies, and other quirks of the cosmos.


The universe's 13.8-billion-year past is simply written in the sky, waiting to be uncovered by our high-tech optics. DES16C2nm may be the furthest confirmed supernova yet, but there's no doubt that a ton more await discovery.