4 ms·

What is the soonest supernova explosion we can observe?

• arc-in-space 3y ago
  I think just about everyone wishes we knew!
• 26fingies 3y ago
  From what I've seen out on the internet Betelgeuse is the most likely next relatively close supernova. There were some recent predictions this would be in 10's of years, I don't know how true that is.
  • alex_young 3y ago
    It's more on the order of 100k years, give or take 100k. I wouldn't put odds on seeing it in our lifetimes.
• pfdietz 3y ago
  We can't know that for sure. A double degenerate type Ia SN progenitor, for example, would right now be a pair of inspiraling white dwarf stars, quite dim. Maybe if/when LISA is in orbit we could detect the gravitational waves from that process? https://lisa.nasa.gov/ https://lisa.nasa.gov/
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• joelshep 3y ago
  In our galaxy, or anywhere? In our galaxy, potentially 1-3 times per century but there are reasons (besides probabilities being what they are) that we humans haven't actually observed one in some time: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-milky-supernovae-millennium.html https://phys.org/news/2021-01-milky-supernovae-millennium.ht... . Across the universe, the estimate is one star goes supernova every ten seconds. Actually observed: about 1-2 per week. There are systems and amateurs who regularly scan the night sky looking for evidence of supernovas and other "transient" objects. And a central database where they are reported: https://www.wis-tns.org/ https://www.wis-tns.org/ . Get an account and sign up for notifications, and you'll get several a week reporting things that probably went boom far, far, far away. Looking to place bets? Betelgeuse is considered a strong contender for the next supernova progenitor that we humans will see with our naked eyes, probably even during daylight hours.