Any guesses on how fast that happens? There are actually several different kinds of supernovae out there, and they have different mechanisms and different durations. Stars between 8 and about 50 times the mass of the Sun exhaust the hydrogen fuel in their cores quickly, in few short million years. Once the massive star runs out of hydrogen in its core, it switches to helium, then carbon, then neon, all the way up the periodic table of elements until it reaches iron.
In just a quarter of a second, infalling material bounces off the iron core of the star, creating a shockwave of matter propagating outward. This shockwave can take a couple of hours to reach the surface.
As the wave passes through, it creates exotic new elements the original star could never form in its core. And this is where we get all get rich. All gold, silver, platinum, uranium and anything higher than iron on the periodic table of elements are created here. A supernova will then take a few months to reach its brightest point, potentially putting out as much energy as the rest of its galaxy combined. Supernova A, named to commemorate the induction of the first woman into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the amazing Aretha Franklin.
But we should really name supernovae after things like that. Still, A went off relatively nearby, and took 85 days to reach its peak brightness. Type I supernovae, which are believed to result from matter falling onto a white dwarf in a binary system , are typically brighter, but fall off more quickly, with the peak brightness lasting only a few hours to days. Type II supernovae which are thought to be the result of core collapse of a massive star generally have a plateau in brightness before dimming more slowly.
Their peak brightness can last several months. Image take from Mr. Galaxy's Intro to Supernovae. The vertical axis on the figure shows the absolute magnitude of the Supernova.
Magnitude are a brightness unit commonly used by astronomers. You can read an explanation here if you don't already know about them. To see an object in during the day it must have an apparant magnitude of less than smaller magnitude means brighter object! The type II supernova which created the Crab nebula is estimated to have had a peak brightness of -6 magnitudes and was visible during the day for 23 days in !
It is about light years or parsecs away so had an absolute magnitude of about remember the light curves in the figure are 'typical', but that not all supernova are exactly the same.
Jagadheep built a new receiver for the Arecibo radio telescope that works between 6 and 8 GHz. He studies 6. These masers occur at sites where massive stars are being born. He got his Ph. Home The Universe Supernovae. Galaxy's Intro to Supernovae The vertical axis on the figure shows the absolute magnitude of the Supernova. Hope that gives you an idea of the answer to your questions.
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