Question: Can scientists predict when a supernova will happen?

James Holloway answered on 21 Mar 2013:

No, not with current telescopes. The problem is that they are very rare as well (about 1 supernovae per galaxy per year – that means 1 in 100 billion stars goes super nova per year!)

One way of catching them in the act is to point a telescope at a far away galaxy and wait, then you can see one every year or so. When one finally does go off it will out shine every other star in that galaxy – but only for 30 seconds or so.

We can get an early warning of when a star has gone super nova in our own galaxy. There are a series of special ‘neutrino detectors’ dotted around the world which will see early neutrinos arriving from a supernova up to three hours before the light gets to us. This is enough time to swing your telescope around to the suspected star and catch it in the act. Its a tricky business though!