Download Name: Notes – #54 White Dwarf Supernovae

Name: ___________________________
Notes – #54 White Dwarf Supernovae - Stealing to Explode
1. For a few days or weeks, supernovae can be a luminous as a few ________________ or
even ____________________ of normal stars.
2. True or False? Our Sun will become a supernova at the end of its life.
3. What are some of the elements that synthesized in a supernova explosion?
4. List some differences observed between Type 1a and Type II supernovae.
Type 1a
Type II
Hydrogen or No Hydrogen
Seen in Spectra
Initial Light Peak or Initial
Steady Output
Found in Elliptical or Spiral
Galaxies
5. Alex Filippenko and his team has found over __________ supernovae.
6. A white dwarf is associated with the Type 1a supernovae. A white dwarf has a center
composed of _________________ and _________________ surrounded by a thin
_________________ layer. Hence, no hydrogen.
7. The white dwarf can steal material from a _________________________________.
8. The white dwarf accumulates mass until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit of
____________ solar masses and becomes unstable. It is thought that a thermonuclear
runaway set of chain reactions occur completely obliterating the star.
9. Radioactive nickel is created that then decays into _______________ and then into
________________. In the process _________________________ (very high energy
light) is produced.
10. How much nickel is formed during a Type 1a supernova explosion?
11. What would we see if the radioactive nickel and cobalt were not produced?
12. Will the white dwarf Sirius B likely become a Type 1a supernova?
13. We would see some dramatically dangerous effects here on Earth if a Type 1a occurred
within ____________ light years.
14. True or False? Astronomers are unsure of how the white dwarf reaches the unstable
mass limit that causes it to explode.