# Is a supernova powerful enough to destroy the other star in a binary system?

(This question was originally posted via World Building, but I was instructed to post it here) https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/109457/is-a-supernova-powerful-to-destroy-the-other-star-in-a-binary-system?noredirect=1#comment332775_109457

The question is basically the same:

Can a binary star system have one of the two stars go supernova in the first place, and if so:

The first scenario would be:

• Star A of the binary swells to red giant status, and then is either touching or consumes star B: what would happen?

Scenario 2:

• Star A goes supernova, with maybe 1 AU of distance between it and Star B.

What info Id like to know:

• Can it destroy the other star via supernova?
• What is the effective range of the supernova, and can it destroy stars a light year or more away?
• It's best to ask one question per question on Stack Exchange sites. OTOH, why do you even mention scenario 1? The red giant phase happens in the middle of a star's life, a long time before any kind of supernova can occur. BTW, there are various types of supernova, but they all require a large star, a star with the mass of our Sun can't go supernova. – PM 2Ring Apr 13 '18 at 14:44
• OTOH, you can have a binary system where the heavier star goes red giant and then eventually becomes a white dwarf. When the lighter star goes red giant the white dwarf can pull matter from the red giant, and that can lead to nova explosions, or if it pulls enough matter you can get a type Ia supernova. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova – PM 2Ring Apr 13 '18 at 15:16
• @PM i mention Red Giant because the original premise is that the stars lifecycle is being artifically accelerated to an extreme degree. I mentioned 1 solar mass because typically people request that I add some sort of baseline to my question – Razmode Apr 13 '18 at 15:35
• Ok, if you can accelerate time in the star's core that may also allow you to get around the mass restriction. But it does make it hard to give a scientifically accurate answer when you bring in SciFi elements like that, and we like our answers here to be science, not SciFi. ;) – PM 2Ring Apr 13 '18 at 15:52
• Understood. I guess we can tell you about real supernovae here, and let you extrapolate. :) – PM 2Ring Apr 13 '18 at 16:30

The gravitational binding energy of a solar mass star of uniform density is $3GM^2/5R = 2.2774\times 10^{41}$ Joule. The energy of a typical supernova is $10^{44}$ J. So it looks at first glance like the explosion could disperse the other star...