I already know a supernova can start new star formation and via new star formation can lead to yet another supernova millions of years later, but that's not what I am talking about here.
Suppose two super-massive stars are orbiting very close to each other and both are extremely close to becoming supernova and then one does become supernova; under the right circumstances, is it possible for the radiation + shockwave from the one that explodes to 'instantly', as in within just, say, 10 seconds, cause the other one to explode by suddenly destabilizing it beyond a 'tipping point' it is already very close to thus leading to a kind of 'double-supernova' ! ?
If so, has the signature of any of these 'double-supernovas' ever been thought to have been detected? (highly unlikely I guess because not that many supernovas have been detected but I ask just in case)
I tried googling this but got nowhere.
Just curious.
@humy
The supernova kick starts by running out of H2 if I have it right.
My guess is if star B gets a huge dose of energy from star A it would dampen the process of going nova because there will be more energy available in B. Just a guess though.
Of course, depending on how close they are, star B would be flung outwards by the energy influx but I suspect that's about all that would happen to star B.
@humy saidIf you had a white dwarf near to the Chandrasekhar limit in orbit about a red giant and the red giant underwent a core collapse supernova then the white dwarf might be compressed enough by the shockwave to become a Type Ia supernova. Alternatively the neutrino flux from the Type II supernova might provide some novel mechanism for setting it off. I really don't know. I think a more likely route would just be further accretion of the ejecta from the Type II supernova, but that likely wouldn't be instant.
I already know a supernova can start new star formation and via new star formation can lead to yet another supernova millions of years later, but that's not what I am talking about here.
Suppose two super-massive stars are orbiting very close to each other and both are extremely close to becoming supernova and then one does become supernova; under the right circumstances, is ...[text shortened]... have been detected but I ask just in case)
I tried googling this but got nowhere.
Just curious.
The resultant light curve would have hydrogen lines (assuming the core collapse supernova wasn't a Type Ib/c supernova) but be a superposition of the light curves from a Type Ia and Type II supernova. Looking at the diagrams of the light curves on the Wikipedia pages [1][2], it's not obvious to me whether one could distinguish it from a single large Type II supernova unless there were mass estimates for the progenitor stars.
For this to happen I think everything would have to be just right, so if it is even physically possible it would be immensely rare.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova#Light_curve
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_II_supernova#Light_curves_for_Type_II-L_and_Type_II-P_supernovae
@deepthought saidArr I had forgotten about the Chandrasekhar limit and didn't consider how in this situation that could cause a white dwarf near to the Chandrasekhar limit to supernova.
If you had a white dwarf near to the Chandrasekhar limit in orbit about a red giant and the red giant underwent a core collapse supernova then the white dwarf might be compressed enough by the shockwave to become a Type Ia supernova. Alternatively the neutrino flux from the Type II supernova might provide some novel mechanism for setting it off. I really don't know. I ...[text shortened]... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_II_supernova#Light_curves_for_Type_II-L_and_Type_II-P_supernovae
So for this to work the other star doesn't have to be both super-massive & wide (not sure exactly what the correct name is for that star type if it isn't necessarily a red giant so here I just call it "super-massive & wide" ) because it can instead be a white dwarf which is not wide.
Thanks for that.
Don't know if a 'double-supernova' could possibly work if the other star is also a red giant or some super-massive & wide star.
@humy saidWith two giants, one of which supernovas I can't see much happening other than the outer layers of the twin being blown off - unless the neutrino flux has some effect, possibly it might precipitate a pair-instability supernova - again though the stars would need to have exactly the right properties.
Arr I had forgotten about the Chandrasekhar limit and didn't consider how in this situation that could cause a white dwarf near to the Chandrasekhar limit to supernova.
So for this to work the other star doesn't have to be both super-massive & wide (not sure exactly what the correct name is for that star type so here I just call it "super-massive & wide" ) because it can instea ...[text shortened]... if this could possibly work if the other star is also a red giant or some super-massive & wide star.
With two white dwarfs there's no mechanism for them to supernova except merger, but that is a separate process.
With three stars in the system we can imagine a giant losing mass to both the white dwarfs, with one of the white dwarfs accretes enough matter to supernova with this sets the other one off using your compression/shockwave mechanism. I suppose in a system with three white dwarfs one might get two white dwarfs merge, produce a bright Type Ia supernova and have this setting off the third white dwarf. The problem is everything would have to be just right. The orbits of the merging stars tight enough for the initial merger to happen and the third star to be close enough to the Chandrasekhar limit for your mechanism to work - assuming the mechanism's viable in the first place.
I think it would have to be a binary system with a white dwarf and a giant for us to have any plausible way of detecting it though.