New Models Suggest Hypernovae May Be a Myth, Not a Reality
Two new studies from University College London argue that hypernovae, once thought to be the most powerful stellar explosions, may not exist. Researchers Anmol Aggarwal and Ralph Schoenrich show that ordinary supernovae, when accounting for uneven material distribution, can explain the chemical signatures of stars previously attributed to hypernovae. This challenges decades of astrophysical models and suggests the universe’s most extreme explosions might be unnecessary to explain observed stellar chemistry.