The peak luminosity of a white dwarf supernova is around 10^10LSun and it remains above 10^8LSun for about 150 days. In comparison, the luminosity of a bright Cepheid variable star is about 10000LSun.The Hubble Space Telescope is sensitive enough to make accurate measurements of apparent brightness for Cepheid variables at distances up to about 100 million light-years.

Estimate the distance of a fading white dwarf supernova of luminosity 10^8LSun whose apparent brightness is comparable to that of a bright Cepheid variable star 100 million light-years from Earth.

1 answer

1*10^10 LY