Astronomers have come across the brightest star explosion ever – a super, supernova – twice as bright as its closest competitors.

The findings were reported by an international team on Thursday in the journal Science.

The professional star-gazers used a network of telescopes located around the planet – enabling them to spot the record-breaking supernova last year.

Super luminous supernovas are extra-bright stellar explosions – and are believed to be rare.

This one is especially rare – and is more than twice as luminous as other stellar megablasts which have been observed.

At its peak, it has been measured at 20 times more luminous than the entire Milky Way.

The phenomenon is located in a galaxy of unknown distance.

Next, scientists want to figure out its incredible power source – because they say other super supernovas – could be somewhere out there.