Type 1a Supernova occur in binary star systems when a carbon-oxygen white dwarf near the Chandrasekhar limit accretes enough material from a companion star to exceed the limit and therefore collapse triggering a thermonuclear detonation . Such events produce extremely luminous supernovae.
The variation in maximum luminosity of Type 1a Supernovae is quite small and this is thought to relate to the small range of masses for the stellar cores that explode. As a consequence of high and uniform luminosity, Type 1a supernovae are useful as 'standard candles' in the calculation of distances to very distant galaxies". - Karl Seguine - Community Outreach Officer
"Pip Stakkert managed to request the COAST robotic camera on Mount Teide to capture this image of the supernova just a few days after its discovery and before its luminosity began to fade.
Supernovae are very luminous indeed but the universe is vast. When you view the little dot of light in this image it is hard to imagine how luminous this supernova is because it is so very very far away.
NGC 4636 is between 42 and 64 million light years distant in the constellation Virgo. Put another way, it is approximately 310,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away. The total energy output of this supernova may be 10e+44 joules, or as much as the total output of the sun during its 10 billion year lifetime. In terms of nuclear explosions = 239,005,736,137,667,280,000,000,000,000 megatons of TNT. A big bang indeed Moriarty!
If you wish to find out more about this supernova or supernovae in general follow the links". - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory
http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2020/sn2020ue.html
https://britastro.org/node/20392
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar_limit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_II_supernova
Credit:telescope.org and the Open University
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