The explosion of giant star in a galaxy near Earth was so powerful that it equalled the detonation of 100 million suns, scientists have revealed.
The star had a radius that was 200 times larger than our sun, before it went supernova in a spectacular space event 30 million years ago.
The burst of energy spat out material at 22.4 million miles an hour, according to Southern Methodist University (SMU) physicist Govinda Dhungana.
Supernovas are not fully understood, but appear to occur when a star becomes so big that its core cannot support the gravitational pull inward. At that point, it collapses and then explodes.
The massive explosion was one of the closest to Earth in recent years, and could be spotted in the night sky from 24 July 2013.
The star was one of billions which sit in the spiral galaxy known as M74, in the Pisces constellation.
The explosion - called Supernova 2013ej by scientists - was considered close by supernova standards but the light still took 30 million years to reach Earth.
Even then, it was only visible using telescopes and appeared as a glowing point of light in the sky.
The latest findings about the supernova were uncovered by analysing data collected by seven ground-based telescopes and NASA's Swift satellite.
The SMU team measured the supernova's evolving temperature, its mass, its radius, the abundance of a variety of chemical elements in its explosion and debris.
The data covered the appearance of the supernova in July 2013, plus the 450 days after that.
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