Quote:
Originally Posted by Robh
Fascinating development. Another supernova candidate waiting to brighten our skies.
HD 49798 is in the constellation Puppis about 2.2 degrees from v (nu) Puppis.
SIMBAD lists it as a high mass X-ray binary. It has visual magnitude about 8.25 and its distance is 2810 light years. For comparison, Betelgeuse is about 430 ly distance.
What would happen to the primary if the companion white dwarf goes supernova?
Regards, Rob
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Most likely get kicked out of the area and become a high velocity star. A supernova explosion would rarely destroy the companion...it may lose a little mass but not as much as you would think. Unless it was a very small star that was the companion, then you'd probably see it evaporated away, but not something like the Sun or larger. They may even gain some mass by accreting some of the material blown off. About the only thing that would happen to a star like the Sun in that situation would be it'd brighten temporarily because of the effects of the shockwave. The surface temp' would increase slightly.
Xray Rossetta Stone Discovered
