Considering naked eye observation from the Earth, SN 1006 was definitely the brightest supernova event recorded in history. The number 1006 refers the year it was seen, a common way to designate supernova events. It reached a peak magnitude of
−7.5M and the reason it appeared as bright as quarter of Moon light is because, later it was found out that this Supernova is just (now a remnant) 7200 light years away. It stayed in the peak magnitude for two days, April 30th and May 1st, as recorded by the then Egyptian astronomer Ali Ibn Ridwan (Ali ibn Ridwan - Wikipedia). Later Chandra Observatory explored the faint X-ray signals from this Supernova remnant and it was confirmed to be a Type 1 supernova (X-Ray View of A Thousand-Year-Old Cosmic Tapestry).
But, if You extend the observation beyond the naked eye then there are two more important events that need to be mentioned.
Using the ASASSN telescope (All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae - Wikipedia), scientists discovered the most luminous supernova event (SN2015l). The event reached a magnitude of −23.5±0.1 but from earth it was impossible to see with naked eye as the galaxy where this event took place is located around 3.8 billion light-years away (ASASSN-15lh: A highly super-luminous supernova). Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this event we can draw a comparison. We all know that Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and it’s about 9 light years away. If this supernova event would have happened at that distance then it would have blazed almost as powerfully as the Sun. If it were as close as Pluto then it would have eaten up the whole solar system. Now, as a student of Cosmic Ray (CR) science, these events are extremely useful as we believe that Supernova are the sources of CRs which hit earth from all direction every moment, and these events are proof that the Supernova explosions do have enough energy that they can act as CR sources.
Last but not the least, before SN 2015l event, there was one more interesting event recorded on 2006 which was the then most luminous event recorded (An extremely luminous supernova in the galaxy NGC 1260) with peak magnitude recorded at −22, where the galaxy NGC 1260 was 238 million light years away. To reach the peak magnitude from −15 to −22it took around 20 days, so definitely it was a long event.
This event was believed to be the result of the death of a massive star, like Eta Carinae (Discovery of the most luminous supernova ever recorded, powered by the death of an extremely massive star like Eta Carinae). Now if You don’t know Eta Carinae, check it out and it’s definitely one of the most interesting star which is 7500 light years away and believed to be exploding as a supernova soon.
Now if You recall the first event I mentioned SN 1006, the distance of the supernova was around 7200 light years away and the Supernova was seen from many different parts of the world, so we should expect to see the massive explosion of the binary system of Eta Carinae from Earth. So let’s hope for the best !
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