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Stellar explosion in 1054 C.E. may have been a third flavor of supernova
![Galaxy NGC 2146 with bright supernova](https://astro.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NGC2146-750px.jpg)
A team of astronomers including UC Berkeley professor Alex Filippenko have found convincing evidence that supernovae come in a third flavor, powered by a long-suspected explosive mechanism that may explain a bright supernova humans observed 1,000 ago and that birthed the beautiful Crab Nebula.
The evidence is an exploding star observed in 2018, the first that fits all six criteria for a hypothesized type of supernova called an electron-capture supernova.