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mfb- t1_ja8oex2 wrote

A typical supernova gets brighter over ~1-3 weeks and then dims over months. Wikipedia has a plot.

If you are too close then you get killed long before you can see the maximal brightness of course.

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chronoflect t1_ja9bl1r wrote

How close is nearby? It's thought that SN 1054 (Crab Nebula) is the same object as a "guest star" observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054-1056, and that's about 6500 lys away, so relatively close by.

It started as being invisible to the human eye, then went through a process of becoming much brighter before dimming again over a ~2 year period. So much brighter that it was visible in daylight for about 23 days, according to one account.

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