Pair Instability Events

The most massive stars — above 130 solar masses — can die in an even more spectacular way: a pair-instability supernova. At extreme core temperatures, photons spontaneously convert into electron-positron pairs, removing radiation pressure and causing the core to collapse.

These explosions can be 100 times brighter than ordinary supernovae and may have been common in the early universe, when stars were typically more massive. Detecting them at high redshift would tell us about the first generation of stars and how they seeded the cosmos with the heavy elements that build planets and life.