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If you could put a supernova in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Where would it be? Would it be near the white dwarfs or near the super giants?

I know that a supernova isn't a star but rather the explosion of a star, but if you technically could. Where would it be located?

Thanks!

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It would be located way off the diagram to the top and left i.e. moderately hot and very, very luminous. Of course it then changes with time as the supernova fades and cools.

This paper by Faran et al. (2017) shows plots of luminosity and temperature versus time for type II supernovae. They start at 15,000K and luminosities of about a billion suns and then fade to about 5000K and by an order of magnitude in luminosity after 50 days.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the answer! I had a feeling they would be somewhere in the top, wasn't sure if it was left or right. $\endgroup$ – Christos Karapasias Jan 21 '18 at 16:54

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