A team of international astronomers may have discovered the biggest and brightest supernova yet.

The explosion was 570 billion times brighter than the sun and 20 times brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy combined, according to the research from The Ohio State University. Scientists are still straining to define its definite strength. Co-author Krzystof Stanek, an astronomer at Ohio State,  says that, “This may be the most powerful supernova ever seen by anybody… it’s really pushing the envelope on what it possible” (Source: CNN News). The findings from the team of astronomers released their information this week in the journal Science. The explosion and a gas cloud that resulted are called ASASSN-15lh after the team of astronomers, All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, discovered it last June. A supernova is a rare and often climatic phenomenon that contains the explosion of most of the material within a star. Supernovas can be blazing brightly for a short time and usually release huge amounts of energy. The blast created a massive ball of hot gas that the team of astronomers have been studying through telescopes around the world. It cannot be seen with a naked eye because it is 3.8 billion light years from Earth, according to the team’s information from Ohio State. Todd Thompson, professor of astronomy at Ohio State, said the object in the center of the supernova may be a rare type of star called a millisecond magnetar. Usually made by a supernova, it is a rapidly spinning, dense star with a powerful magnetic field. It was also said that if it is not a millisecond magnetar, it may be unusual nuclear activity around “a supermassive black hole,” Ohio State said.