A team led by Frédéric Poidevin at the IAC studied SN 2021lwz, about 900 million light-years away, which reached peak brightness in just 7 days and threw off about 0.24 solar masses. A rapidly spinning, highly magnetised neutron star explains it better than radioactive nickel; its host is a dwarf galaxy with a millionth of the Milky Way’s mass. Our take: such fast, bright blasts show how a newborn neutron star can drive an explosion.
7days to peak
900Mlight-years away
0,24solar masses ejected