@article{471c3ce58ed547ae84bb879cb30b7d25,
title = "Astronomy: ASASSN-15lh: A highly super-luminous supernova",
abstract = "We report the discovery of ASASSN-15lh (SN 2015L), which we interpret as the most luminous supernova yet found. At redshift z = 0.2326, ASASSN-15lh reached an absolute magnitude of Mu,AB = -23.5 ± 0.1 and bolometric luminosity Lbol = (2.2 ± 0.2) × 1045 ergs s-1, which is more than twice as luminous as any previously known supernova. It has several major features characteristic of the hydrogen-poor super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe-I), whose energy sources and progenitors are currently poorly understood. In contrast to most previously known SLSNe-I that reside in star-forming dwarf galaxies, ASASSN-15lh appears to be hosted by a luminous galaxy (MK ∼ -25.5) with little star formation. In the 4 months since first detection, ASASSN-15lh radiated (1.1 ± 0.2) × 1052 ergs, challenging the magnetar model for its engine.",
author = "Subo Dong and Shappee, {B. J.} and Prieto, {J. L.} and Jha, {S. W.} and Stanek, {K. Z.} and Holoien, {T. W.S.} and Kochanek, {C. S.} and Thompson, {T. A.} and N. Morrell and Thompson, {I. B.} and U. Basu and Beacom, {J. F.} and D. Bersier and J. Brimacombe and Brown, {J. S.} and F. Bufano and Ping Chen and E. Conseil and Danilet, {A. B.} and E. Falco and D. Grupe and S. Kiyota and G. Masi and B. Nicholls and Olivares, {F. E.} and G. Pignata and G. Pojmanski and Simonian, {G. V.} and Szczygiel, {D. M.} and Wo{\'z}niak, {P. R.}",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge B. Zhang, L. Ho, A. Gal-Yam, and B. Katz for comments; NSF AST-1515927, OSU CCAPP, Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, TAP, SAO, CAS grant XDB09000000 (S.D.); NASA Hubble Fellowship (B.J.S.); FONDECYT grant 1151445, MAS project IC120009 (J.L.P.); NSF CAREER award AST-0847157 (S.W.J.); U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) DE-FG02-97ER25308 (T.W.-S.H.); NSF PHY-1404311 (J.F.B.); D. Victor for donating equipment (BN); FONDECYT postdoctoral fellowship 3140326 (F.O.E.), and Los Alamos National Laboratory Laboratory Directed Research and Development program (P.R.W). B.J.S. is a Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Fellow. All data used in this paper are made public, including the photometric data (tables S1 to S6) and spectroscopic data at public repository WISeREP (26) (http://wiserep.weizmann.ac.il).",
year = "2016",
month = jan,
day = "15",
doi = "10.1126/science.aac9613",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "351",
pages = "257--260",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "6270",
}