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The most recent naked-eye supernova was SN 1987A, which was the explosion of a blue supergiant star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Theoretical studies indicate that most supernovae are triggered by one of two basic mechanisms: the sudden re-ignition of nuclear fusion in a white dwarf , or the sudden ...
Supernova 1987A is the bright star at the centre of the image, near the Tarantula Nebula. SN 1987A was a type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs (168,000 light-years) from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova in 1604.
A Type II supernova or SNII [1] (plural: supernovae) results from the rapid collapse and violent explosion of a massive star. A star must have at least eight times, but no more than 40 to 50 times, the mass of the Sun ( M ☉ ) to undergo this type of explosion. [ 2 ]
SN 1054 remnant (Crab Nebula)A supernova is an event in which a star destroys itself in an explosion which can briefly become as luminous as an entire galaxy.This list of supernovae of historical significance includes events that were observed prior to the development of photography, and individual events that have been the subject of a scientific paper that contributed to supernova theory.
The Type Ia supernova leaves no compact remnant, but the whole mass of the former white dwarf dissipates through space. The theory of this type of supernova is similar to that of novae, in which a white dwarf accretes matter more slowly and does not approach the Chandrasekhar limit. In the case of a nova, the infalling matter causes a hydrogen ...
In either case, the resulting supernova explosion expels much or all of the stellar material with velocities as much as 10% the speed of light (or approximately 30,000 km/s) and a strong shock wave forms ahead of the ejecta. That heats the upstream plasma up to temperatures well above millions of K.
SN 2016aps (also known as PS16aqy and AT2016aps) is the brightest and most energetic supernova explosion ever recorded. [2] [3] It released more energy than ASASSN-15lh. [4]In addition to the sheer amount of energy released, an unusually large amount of the energy was released in the form of radiation, probably due to the interaction of the supernova ejecta and a previously lost gas shell.
SN 2018cow (ATLAS name: ATLAS18qqn; also known as Supernova 2018cow, AT 2018cow (AT = Astronomical Transient), and "The Cow") was a very powerful astronomical explosion, 10–100 times brighter than a normal supernova, spatially coincident with galaxy CGCG 137-068, approximately 200 million ly (60 million pc) distant in the Hercules constellation.