Supernova Research Paper

On the other end of the spectrum, the death of a super-massive star is one of the most brilliant displays of pure power in the universe which includes an amazing light show which has no equal. A super-massive star is exactly what it sounds like, a star so big that it dwarfs our own star in every way. When a super-massive sun begins to run out of out of hydrogen it begins to collapse, but due to its immense gravity and size, the collapse produces such an abrupt implosion that the last remnants of nuclear fusion remaining push all the mass of the star back out into space (Britt, 2007). This can be compared to someone jumping onto a trampoline whose elastic has enough elasticity to force one back into the air. This occurrence is known as a supernova explosion, which is the largest explosion in the known universe. A supernova explosion can even be seen from other galaxies, as scientists have done witnessed from observations using the Hubble telescope. The star is so big, however, that it only blows its outer atmosphere away, still leaving a massive amount of matter that is doomed to collapse again, and this time it will be a one-way ticket to oblivion. The super-massive star finally collapses and its own incredible mass crushes it’s internally and now turns it into a neutron star. An average neutron star is about ten miles in diameter, or the size of Manhattan. Although this

All over our galaxy are pockets of space, filled with dust and gas. Some of these clouds are denser than others, and every once and a while, a cloud of this gas begins squeezing together due to its own gravity. This is when a star begins to form. The cloud begins to form into a rotating disk, with the inner section rotating faster than the outer. The center will begin to heat up because of the pressure and thermonuclear reactions start in its center. Eventually, two hydrogen atoms get squeezed together with extreme pressure so that they fuse into one atom of helium, releasing a massive amount of energy, when this happens; the object is now a protostar. As the star ages, it begins to run out of hydrogen, and the star starts to spasm. It is now a subgiant. The

After its core hydrogen is depleted, a red main sequence star will go supernova after its red giant phase.

The dying star would shrink, it would be so densely made up of neutrons, hence the name: neutron stars. It was only after 35 years that he made this discovery, that other scientists soon began discovering their own supernovas. Fritz Zwicky discovered more than just supernovas, he also discovered that the gravity of the galaxy warps the fabric of space. This is able to distort the light, and magnify other galaxies behind it. Like the supernovas, roughly 40 years after Zwicky predicted this phenomenon, scientist began discovering this in space.

Orion has two of the brightest stars, be Betelgeuse and Rigel. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. The gravity of the star squeezes its core tightly, heating it to billions of degrees. It then fuses the helium to make heavier elements. When that happens, the star no longer produces energy in the core. Without the reactions in its core to push outward, gravity quickly causes the core to collapse, forming a neutron star.

The only stars that are within the ten light year radius are Proxima Centauri,Proxima Centauri,Luhman 16,WISE 0855−0714,Wolf 359,Lalande 21185,Sirius,Luyten 726-8, and Ross 154 with are all way too small to create a supernova. In fact the closest star that could create a supernova is Betelgeuse which is 430 light years away all it will do is shine a little brighter for a couple weeks.

The larger a star, the shorter their lifespan is, and they explode as supernovae, blasting out powerful shockwaves that create a chain-reaction that spews throughout the galaxy. Within just a few million years, the galaxy is forming stars up to hundreds of times more than a normal galaxy would. When all of the gas available is used up in about ten million years, the galaxy calms down and the period

Cassiopeia A Supernova – A Supernova is a star that has exploded and increases in brightness because it’s mass is now ejected.

seen day and night in the sky. It is now known as the crab nebula, and is a breeding ground for smaller stars. Another way for a supernova to be created, is when a white dwarf siphons off hydrogen from another star to the point where it will become unstable and explode.

The deaths of normal stars give birth to neutron stars. Neutron Stars are products of the so called supernova. Supernovae transpire during the death of a highly developed star which occurs when there is not enough nuclear fuel to keep the pressure intact inside the core of a star (Gursky 1975). The aftermath of a supernova is crucial because it frees iron, carbon, copper, and oxygen along with other elements found in a star. This explosion completely demolishes the star and has the ability to transform into either a black hole or neutron star (Freddy 2006). These supernovae are extremely bright and every 200 years there is an explosion that happens to be big enough and bright enough to be seen from earth. Neutron stars are very significant within the universe. It is said that the neutron star was discovered before the before the neutron. It was Lev Landau who first wrote about and studied dense stars. He focused his research on the idea there were objects in the universe that were denser than but as small as white dwarfs and regular stars (Haensel 2007). This focus leads to the discovery of the fascinating and complicated neutron star. The end is only the beginning for neutron stars.

Gravity pulls dust and gas together until it forms a ball. After a bit of time, the temperature rises from all the gas and dust bumping into each other under the great pressure of the surrounding material reaches around 15 million degrees. This is called a protostar, and it reaches a temperature of about 10 million Kelvins. This is where nuclear fusion occurs, and a star is born.

After approximately 10 billion years after the star is considered to be a main sequence star, the hydrogen at the center of the core is depleted. This causes the nuclear fusion which had been previously fueling the star to die out. Helium replaces the hydrogen in the core, and the inner core begins to shrink due to gravity. This process speeds up once all the hydrogen is completely used up. The radius of the star has increased

During the condensing of the star’s core, the neutrinos are able to escape, but the neutrons are squished together so much that their density is the same of an atomic nucleus’ density. A violent explosion happens during this process and its called a “supernova”. To put this into perspective, imagine taking something the size of our sun, if not bigger, and compacting it into an area the size of a city. This is so dense that just a teaspoon of it would weigh about 1 billion tons! Crazy, right?

Supernovas are the explosion of a star when it reaches the end of its life. There are two ways a star can go supernova. The first way or a Type I supernova occurs in the Binary system which is when two stars orbit the same point. The two stars are a white dwarf and a red giant. A white dwarf is a small dense star that is around the size of a planet and a red giant is a star at its last stages of life. If these two stars are close enough, matter will be transferred to the white dwarf from the red giant. When the star’s core reaches its limit of matter, a thermonuclear detonation will occur leaving nothing behind unless there were leftover elements in the white dwarf or there were elements made in the supernova explosion. One of the elements made in the explosion is radioactive nickel.

Main sequence stars like our own sun enduring in a state of nuclear fusion during which they will produce energy for billions of years by replacing hydrogen to helium. Stars change over billions of years. When their main sequence phase ends they pass through other states of existence according to their size and other characteristics. The larger a star's mass, the shorter its lifespan is. As stars move toward the end of their lives, much of their hydrogen will be converted to helium. Helium sinks to the star's core and raises the star's temperature—causing its outer shell to expand. These large, puffy stars are known as Red Giants. The red giant phase is actually a prelude to a star shedding its outer layers and becoming a small, dense body called a White Dwarf. White dwarfs cool down for billions and billions of years, until they finally go dark and produce no energy at all. Once this happens, scientists have yet to observe, such stars become known as Black Dwarfs. A few stars avoid this evolutionary path and instead go out with a bang, exploding as Supernovae. These violent explosions leave behind a small core that will then turn into something called a Neutron Star or even, if the remainder is large enough, it is then turned into something called a Black Hole.