An Explosion of New Explosions

This decade, we have witnessed an explosion of new explosions (literally!). Read Short Review
We have known about classical novae and supernovae for over a century. Recently, systematic searches, serendipitous discoveries and archival searches have uncovered a plethora of novel, rare transients. Several new classes are emerging and the governing physics is filling in holes in our understanding of massive star evolution and compact binary explosions:


A simple framework of cosmic explosions expressed as peak visual luminosity versus characteristic timescale. [Figure below adapted from Kasliwal 2011 (PhDT)]

Some other case studies of extreme explosions