1. Astronomical Institute 'Anton Pannekoek',
2. Institute for Computer Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, The Netherlands
3. Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, California 93106–4030, USA

Correspondence to: Simon F. Portegies Zwart^1,2Edward P. J. van den Heuvel^1,3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to S.F.P.Z. (Email: spz@science.uva.nl) or E.P.J.v.d.H. (Email: edvdh@science.uva.nl).

Abstract

Supernova SN 2006gy in the galaxy NGC 1260 is the most luminous recorded^{1, 2, 3, 4}. Its progenitor might have been a very massive (>100, where is the mass of the Sun) star⁵, but that interpretation is incompatible with hydrogen in the spectrum of the supernova; stars >40 are believed to have shed their hydrogen envelopes several hundred thousand years before the explosion⁶. Alternatively, the progenitor might have arisen from the merger of two massive stars⁷. Here we show that the collision frequency of massive stars in a dense and young cluster (of the kind to be expected near the centre of a galaxy) is sufficient to provide a reasonable chance that SN 2006gy resulted from such a bombardment. If this is the correct explanation, then we predict that when the supernova fades (in a year or so) a dense cluster of massive stars will become visible at the site of the explosion.

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