One supernova every second?

[cosmicalstorm]

A friend of mine claims that one supernova occurs roughly once every second in our universe, to me that sounded a bit too much but im far from qualified to say.

It got me thinking and I tried to do some searching, but could'nt find anything conclusive, some claimed it only happened once every century or even less than that, others claimed there were several occuring every second.

Are there any accepted estimates for this number?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

A friend of mine claims that one supernova occurs roughly once every second in our universe, to me that sounded a bit too much but im far from qualified to say.

It got me thinking and I tried to do some searching, but could'nt find anything conclusive, some claimed it only happened once every century or even less than that, others claimed there were several occuring every second.

Are there any accepted estimates for this number?

The rate stars go supernova in a galaxy like the Milky Way is between 1 to 25 per century. There are up to 500 billion galaxies in the universe. When you put those two numbers together, the estimation that there is a mere 31.5 million supernova in the universe per year is actually probably a bit on the low side.

[Darth Raptor]

If one exploding star per second in the whole universe sounds high to you, you have no sense of scale. The once a century estimates are for our own galaxy.

[Molyneux]

It's a biiig universe. Refer to Douglas Adams for just how big.

Once a second sounds rather low...

[cosmicalstorm]

Well im not gonna lie and claim I can appreciate the full scale of the Universe, I just imagined these things were a bit more rare.

[Xess]

I get about 158 supernovae per second for 1 per century per galaxy with 500 billion galaxies.

[Ford Prefect]

Well im not gonna lie and claim I can appreciate the full scale of the Universe, I just imagined these things were a bit more rare.

It won't really give you that great an understanding of just how huge things are in the universe, but have a look at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which is a 'snapshot' of a piece of sky much smaller than the full moon as visible from earth. You won't understand how big it is, but it should give you an impression of vastness.

[Wyrm]

Well im not gonna lie and claim I can appreciate the full scale of the Universe, I just imagined these things were a bit more rare.

Supernovae are rare, on a star-by-star basis. Out of the 900 billion stars in our galaxy, only one supernova occurs a century or so (the last close one was in our neighboring satellite galaxy). What you see working here is the power of large numbers.

[Stile]

Well im not gonna lie and claim I can appreciate the full scale of the Universe, I just imagined these things were a bit more rare.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/universe.html

Each one of those dots are clusters of galaxies.

[dragon]

Well im not gonna lie and claim I can appreciate the full scale of the Universe, I just imagined these things were a bit more rare.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/universe.html

Each one of those dots are clusters of galaxies.

And people believe that we are the only ones to have evolved in all that expanse, some people just can't see past the ends of their noses.

[Executor32]

That always makes me laugh. 30 sextillion stars in the universe, and the supposed creator of everything picks the third infinitesimal speck around a slightly less infinitesimal speck to be the only one with life?

[Zablorg]

He just wanted us to be special, man. He loves us that much.

Anyways, think that 1 supernova a second is still pretty broken. Say what you will about the vastness of the universe, but one every second is just, damn.

[Executor32]

Let me put it this way: assuming that only 1% of those 30 sextillion stars are capable of going supernova, and that only 1% of those capable actually do so, at the rate of 1 per second it would still take over 95 billion years for that 1% of 1% to go supernova. The universe is a vast place indeed.

[The Spartan]

He just wanted us to be special, man. He loves us that much.

Anyways, think that 1 supernova a second is still pretty broken. Say what you will about the vastness of the universe, but one every second is just, damn.

Not one every second. One every century per galaxy. It work out to around 158 every second in the universe, on average, as Xess noted.

[cosmicalstorm]

I've seen the HUDF before, it always amazes me, but the map of the Universe was new, even a small part of it is truly impossible to appreciate.

And ~150 of those blasted things every second, that is a mindboggling number, I think im gonna be a smartass the next time we talk supernovas and point out his 1/s estimate was way off

[Ryan Thunder]

Well im not gonna lie and claim I can appreciate the full scale of the Universe, I just imagined these things were a bit more rare.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/universe.html

Each one of those dots are clusters of galaxies.

Good heavens... Literally, I suppose.

Man, my mind is just incapable of really understanding the true scope of the Universe.

I looked at the Deep Field, and realized that it's completely lost on me that I'm looking at almost nothing but galaxies. Galaxies! Billions of stars in each! And I feel nothing. Not so much as a tingle in my spine.