GReAt BALL OF FiRe

Muse, Apr 2004

In January, astronomers announced they had found the brightest star ever seen. The star, which goes by the unlovely name LBV 1806-20, is hiding on the other side of the Milky Way under a veil of dust. Stephen Eikenberry, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida, says the star is too big to have formed in the usual way, when a cloud of hydrogen collapsed under its own weight.

He speculates that it might have formed instead when the shock wave from an exploding star slammed together the material in a gaseous cloud. Born in violence, LBV 1806-20 is destined to die in violence. Eikenberry said he expects it will blow itself to bits long before it reaches the sun's current age.