• Question: what colours and temperature is a supernova?

    Asked by littlechatterbox to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Supernovae are the hottest things in the universe can outshine a whole galaxy of stars. I think they are probably white since they will emit colour at every wavelength, which makes white light.

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Supernovae do have different colours – sometimes to do with exactly what was in the star that exploded, but mostly to do with the temperature of the supernova.

      They are very hot.

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I know that when a star goes supernova, it can give out as much energy in a very short time as it did during its whole lifetime, which may have been billions of years. That energy is in the form of light and heat, so I think the temperature would be unthinkably hot (the centre of a star is usually several million degrees, so even hotter than that!) and could be *all* colours as radiation is given out at every wavelength.

      Quite a thing to see, if you’re not burnt to death!

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Almost all colours, including ones we can’t see (ultraviolet, gamma radiation and in the other direction infra-red and radio). The temperatures are enormous since it is only in a supernova that a lot of elements can get formed.

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