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I read the wikipedia article about SN 2008D which says: "Now that it is known what X-ray pattern to look for, the next generation of X-ray satellites is expected to find hundreds of supernovae every year exactly when they explode [...]"

Is it too much enthusiastic? Or the "next generation" of those satellites isn't out yet?

Well, I just wanted to know if there is some other supernovae explosions pictures/videos available :)

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The "100's per year" is a little optimistic, but definitely not crazy. The problem is that there aren't even plans for 'the next generation' of this type of x-ray telescope. SN 2008D was detected by the Swift BAT and XRT, which were designed to detect fast transient events (like supernovae) by monitoring a very large fraction of the sky, very quickly. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, there are no similar projects in the works.

There are some very exciting transient telescopes in the optical which are already detecting lots of supernovae, for example Pan-STARRS and PTF. Next generation survey telescopes are also in the works, which will revolutionize supernovae detections, especially LSST.

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Wow thanks for the detailed answer and the links :) Okay, so if I'm not mistaken, those optical telescopes will discover supernovae shortly after their birth right? My question was really about observing a supernovae from the very beginning. So do those optical telescopes allows that? Or was SN 2008D a great stroke of luck even with an x-ray telescope? – Théo T Mar 20 at 10:10
That's just a question of luck, but it should happen much more often with new telescopes. There are a few cases where that has happened in the last few years with optical telescopes, like the ones I listed. – zhermes Mar 20 at 16:04
Okay, thank you! – Théo T Mar 21 at 8:16

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