<p>If a Supernova were to happen in the Milky Way, how long would it take for astronomers to be notified?</p>
<p>How long would it take for the people running the gravitational wave and neutrino detectors to realise what had happened, realise what region of the sky the signal had come from, and start sending out alerts?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-07T15:51:28.527Z
There's an automatic system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperNova_Early_Warning_System The neutrinos (& gravitational waves) from a core collapse SN should arrive about 3 hours before the SN is visible. Also see https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/359002/123208 & links therein.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-07T15:53:57.120Z
That's not what I'm asking, I'm asking for the response time.
blademan9999
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-07T15:56:02.143Z
Understood. That's why I posted a comment containing related info, not an answer.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-07T16:43:28.633Z
the last paragraph of the wikipedia article says: "The detectors send reports of a possible supernova to a computer at Brookhaven National Laboratory to identify a supernova. If the SNEWS computer identifies signals from two detectors within 10 seconds, the computer will send a supernova alert to observatories around the world to study the supernova" - so the response time will vary depending on the observatory in question. Minimum possible response time would be 11 seconds, I guess
Aaron F
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-09T00:22:50.403Z
I added the [tag:time-domain-astronomy] tag; you may find other questions with that tag interesting. Also, I just asked in meta: [We've been using the gravitational-waves tag for 10 years, do we really also need gravitational-wave-astronomy?](https://astronomy.meta.stackexchange.com/q/919/7982)
uhoh
<supernova><neutrinos><time-domain-astronomy><gravitational-waves>
If a Milky Way supernova were to happen, how long would it take for astronomers to be notified?
blademan9999
# If a Milky Way supernova were to happen, how long would it take for astronomers to be notified?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-07)

If a Supernova were to happen in the Milky Way, how long would it take for astronomers to be notified?

How long would it take for the people running the gravitational wave and neutrino detectors to realise what had happened, realise what region of the sky the signal had come from, and start sending out alerts?

**Tags:** supernova, neutrinos, time-domain-astronomy, gravitational-waves

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There's an automatic system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperNova_Early_Warning_System The neutrinos (& gravitational waves) from a core collapse SN should arrive about 3 hours before the SN is visible. Also see https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/359002/123208 & links therein.  
> **username_0**: That's not what I'm asking, I'm asking for the response time.  
> **username_1**: Understood. That's why I posted a comment containing related info, not an answer.  
> **username_2**: the last paragraph of the wikipedia article says: "The detectors send reports of a possible supernova to a computer at Brookhaven National Laboratory to identify a supernova. If the SNEWS computer identifies signals from two detectors within 10 seconds, the computer will send a supernova alert to observatories around the world to study the supernova" - so the response time will vary depending on the observatory in question. Minimum possible response time would be 11 seconds, I guess  
> **username_3**: I added the [tag:time-domain-astronomy] tag; you may find other questions with that tag interesting. Also, I just asked in meta: [We've been using the gravitational-waves tag for 10 years, do we really also need gravitational-wave-astronomy?](https://astronomy.meta.stackexchange.com/q/919/7982)  

---

## 0 answers

