Rare Supernova Rips Open a Star, Revealing Its Hidden Anatomy
A new discovery offers fresh insights into the life cycle of massive stars and their imminent death. On September 6, 2021, Steve Schulze, a researcher at Northwestern University, was on the lookout for fresh supernovas when he came across a strange explosion that left behind an extremely exposed corpse. The dying star had a rather stressful death, stripping down to its stellar bone and exposing its inner layers. “We quickly noticed that this supernova was unlike anything we had seen before,” Sc