Confirmed: Stellar Behemoth Self-Destructs in a Type IIb Supernova

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Wolf-Rayet stars, more than 20 times as massive as the Sun and at least five times as hot, are relatively rare and often obscured. Scientists don't know much about how they form, live and die. But that's changing, thanks to an innovative sky survey called the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), which uses resources at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). For the first time ever, sci...