A brilliant “new” star blazed into view more than a thousand years ago. It’s the brightest star ever recorded, and may be the brightest ever seen by human eyes.

Supernova 1006 first appeared in late April of the year 1006. For a few weeks it shined many times brighter than Venus, which is the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. It was bright enough to see during the day, and remained visible at night for more than two years. It was recorded by cultures around the world.

At the time, nobody knew what the star actually was. Today, though, we know it was a supernova.

It formed in a binary system. At least one of the two stars was a white dwarf – a stellar corpse. It might have pulled gas from a living companion star. Or perhaps the companion was another white dwarf, and the two stars rammed together. Either way, a white dwarf was pushed beyond its critical weight limit. That caused a runaway nuclear explosion that blasted the star to bits.

Debris from the blast continues to race outward at millions of miles per hour. Astronomers watch this debris, mainly in radio waves and X-rays, to learn more about the star and its demise.

Supernova 1006 was along the border between the constellations Lupus and Centaurus. The spot is low in the south-southwest at nightfall. But the residue of this brilliant outburst has faded away. Large telescopes reveal only a colorful ribbon at the edge of the expanding bubble.

Script by Damond Benningfield