First Gamma-Ray Superluminous Supernova

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]For 20 years, astronomers searched for something they weren't sure existed.

[00:00:04]This week, NASA found it. NASA's Fermi telescope confirmed the first clear detection of gamma rays from a super luminous supernova, a stellar explosion so powerful it produces 10 times more light than a normal supernova and briefly outshines its entire galaxy. The explosion [music] called SN2017EGM occurred 440 million light-years away.

[00:00:30]Fermi detected its gamma rays for over 100 days after the blast. What's driving this impossible brightness? Scientists believe it's a magnetar, a city-sized neutron star born from the collapsing core of the original star spinning hundreds of times per second, generating magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's and feeding energy back into the expanding explosion like a cosmic [music] engine. Thousands of supernovae were searched. Only one gave a definitive answer, and it changed how we understand the most violent events in the universe. What do you think is the most powerful force in the universe?