Luminous Supernovae

Stellar Explosions Stars that are born with masses greater than eight times that of the Sun end their lives in luminous explosions known as supernovae. Over the past decade, access to improved sky surveys has revealed rare types of supernovae that are much more luminous than any of those that were known before. Gal-Yam (p. 927) reviews these superluminous events and groups them into three classes that share common observational and physical characteristics. Gamma-ray bursts are another type of extreme explosive events related to the death of massive stars, which occur once per day somewhere in the universe and produce short-lived bursts of gamma-ray light. Gehrels and Mészáros (p. 932) review what has been learned about these events since the launch of NASA's Swift (2004) and Fermi (2008) satellites. The current interpretation is that gamma-ray bursts are related to the formation of black holes. Type Ia supernovae are used as cosmological distance indicators. They are thought to be the result of the thermonuclear explosion of white dwarf stars in binary systems, but the nature of the stellar companion to the white dwarf is still debated. Dilday et al. (p. 942) report high-resolution spectroscopy of the supernova PTF 11kx, which was detected on 26 January 2011 by the Palomar Transient Factory survey. The data suggest a red giant star companion whose material got transferred to the white dwarf. Supernovae, the luminous explosions of stars, have been observed since antiquity. However, various examples of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe; luminosities >7 × 1043 ergs per second) have only recently been documented. From the accumulated evidence, SLSNe can be classified as radioactively powered (SLSN-R), hydrogen-rich (SLSN-II), and hydrogen-poor (SLSN-I, the most luminous class). The SLSN-II and SLSN-I classes are more common, whereas the SLSN-R class is better understood. The physical origins of the extreme luminosity emitted by SLSNe are a focus of current research.