In January, scientists said they discovered an exploding star ending in a super-luminous supernova that was almost inconceivably bright — more so than the output of the entire Milky Way.
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“The explosion’s mechanism and power source remain shrouded in mystery because all known theories meet serious challenges in explaining the immense amount of energy ASASSN-15lh has radiated,” astronomer Subo Dong said in a statement at the time.
A study based on new data and observations of ASASSN-15lh attempts to solve the mystery by re-classifying it as what’s called a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE).
“We observed the source for 10 months following the event and have concluded that the explanation is unlikely to lie with an extraordinarily bright supernova,” Giorgos Leloudas, of the Weizmann Institute of Science, said in a news release Monday. …