How could a star in a binary survive its companion exploding in a supernova?
Thanks for your question! The basic reason that a star in a binary could survive its companion exploding in a supernova is that a surprisingly small fraction of the energy of the supernova is actually absorbed by the companion. Even for a very close binary, the binary separation would be a good 10 times their size. This means that only about 1/400 of the supernova’s kinetic energy is absorbed by the companion. The binding energy of a star (i.e., the energy required to completely destroy it) is at least 1/100 of the kinetic energy of a supernova. This means that, yes, the outer layers might be blown off, but most of the star will survive just fine. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to be around when it happened… 🙂 Cole Miller 17. The question I have for you is, what are magnetars, how are they created and what kind of affects do they have on space? A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an especially strong magnetic field. Let me give you an idea of the scale we’re talking about, though.
