It’s true that not every supernova is the same. What follows is a synopsis of the various types of exploding stars.
What is the most dangerous supernova?
Type I and Type II are the two main groups of supernovae based on how they explode. Type Ia supernovae have a lot of carbon and not much hydrogen in their spectra.
They also have elements up to iron, silicon, and calcium (due to fusion during the intense explosions).
When they are at their brightest, type Ib supernovae have less sharp peaks and are about a billion times brighter than the Sun.
Telescopes were used to find the most powerful supernova that has ever been seen. It can shine hundreds of times brighter than other explosions of stars.
Calcium-rich supernovae are a rare type of very fast supernova with lines in their spectrum that are unusually strong for calcium.
Hypernova and kilonova: A look at rare types of supernova
A hypernova explosion happens when a very big star explodes, while a kilonova explosion happens when two neutron stars merge.
SN 1006 was a supernova that got as bright as 7.5 on the visual magnitude scale, which is about sixteen times brighter than Venus.
Type I supernovae are three times brighter than Type II supernovae, and their spectra don’t have any hydrogen lines. About once every 500 years, a type 1a supernova happens in the Milky Way.
A hypernova is a type of supernova in which the core collapses with a lot of force. It is ten to one hundred times more powerful than a supernova.
White nova is a supernova in a binary star system
In a system with two stars, a white nova is an explosion that happens on the surface of a white dwarf star. When a white dwarf “steals” gas from a nearby star and lets it build up on its surface, this is what happens.
If a supernova happened within 25 light-years, it could destroy Earth, but astronomers haven’t found any supernovas that could be dangerous in our cosmic backyard.
Near-Earth supernovae could wipe out half of Earth’s ozone layer
A supernova happens when a star that is at least 25 times heavier than our Sun runs out of nuclear fuel and explodes, making a black hole. A Type II supernova that was less than eight parsecs away would destroy more than half of the Earth’s ozone layer (26 light-years).
Near-Earth supernovae are the hottest things in the universe, with temperatures that can be up to 6,000 times hotter than the center of the sun. They might get as hot as 3 billion degrees Celsius before they explode.
Type Ib supernova: darker than Type Ia, but with more mass
A Type Ib supernova is about four times less bright than a Type Ia supernova, and it is also a little bit wider.
It is also less likely than was once thought that very heavy elements like gold are made when neutron stars crash into each other.
At one point, because a white dwarf has almost no hydrogen, a Type Ib supernova can shine brighter than a Type II supernova. Black holes, which are the most dense things in the universe, can be left behind by a Type Ic supernova.
Supernova with a lot of power: The most powerful explosion in our universe
A supernova with a lot of power is called a hypernova. It is thought to be the result of an extreme core-collapse scenario in which a massive star with a mass of more than 30 solar masses collapses into a spinning black hole with two powerful jets and an accretion disk around it.
A hypernova is the most powerful explosion that has happened in our universe since the Big Bang.
They are 10 to 100 times brighter than the average supernova and have enough energy to destroy the sun more than 100 times or power the Earth for the next billion years.
A supernova is a very big explosion that happens when a star dies. The blast pulls in any planets that are closer to the sun than the distance between Earth and the sun. Kilonovas are 1000 times brighter than normal novas and 110 to 1100 times brighter than normal supernovas.
