Record supernova may not actually be a supernova

Science News : Last year astronomers observed a burst of light—tagged ASASSN-15lh—from 3 billion light-years away that they reported as the brightest supernova ever seen. With a peak luminosity of around 550 billion times that of the Sun, the supernova was twice as bright as the previous record holder. Now Peter Brown of Texas A&M University in College Station and his colleagues say that ASASSN-15lh might not be a supernova. About 80 days after ASASSN-15lh peaked in brightness and began fading away, Brown’s team saw it get brighter again. After another 80 days, the object was emitting as much UV light as some supernovae. An increase in brightness of supernova remnants can be caused by various known mechanisms, but none of the spectral absorption lines characteristic of those explanations have been found. Instead, Brown’s team suggests that ASASSN-15lh is actually a star being swallowed by the supermassive black hole at the center of the source galaxy. The flash was emitted from near the galaxy’s center, and the increase in brightness could stem from a second piece of the star falling into the black hole.