A blindingly bright star bursts into view in a corner of the night sky — it wasn't there just a few hours ago, but now it burns like a beacon. That bright star isn't actually a star, the brilliant point of light is the explosion of a star that has reached the end of its life, otherwise known as a supernova.
A star can go supernova in one of two ways:
Type I supernova: star accumulates matter from a nearby neighbour until a runaway nuclear reaction ignites.
Type II supernova: star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity.
After its core hydrogen is depleted, a red main sequence star will go supernova after its red giant phase.
The star starts off as a nebula. (Along with every other star). From there, the star would become a protostar. Following the smaller sized star would become a Red Dwarf star. When the star is in this stage, it is in its main sequence and will stay in this stage for a very long time. As time passes the star will begin to become a Red Giant. After this stage in the star’s life, the star will begin to cool down, and become a white dwarf. From the white dwarf stage, the star will be coming to an end. The final stage will come to the black dwarf stage where it would be there for a very very long
After the core of a star has depleted all its hydrogen in fusion, it undergoes its final stages of its life, or in other words, its death. The process path of a dying star depends on its mass. Low mass stars, from about 0.4 up to 8 solar masses will evolve from a planetary nebula to a white dwarf. Stars with larger the 8 solar masses will form supernovae, than either a neutron star for intermediate stars (8-25 solar masses) or a black hole for high mass stars (greater than 25 solar masses).
Similar to when nuclear fission occurs, the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts. In Supernova, by Jeffrey C. Hall (2004), he states that a Type I supernova is the explosion of a dead star that consists mainly of the element, Carbon. In a Type II supernova,
The burning process continues in the outer layers of the star, and they continue to expand. They can reach a maximum radius of approximately 300 times our Sun’s! The burning in the outer layers becomes unstable and they go through a series of explosive helium-shell flashes which are brought on by the pressure in the shell and the sensitivity to changes in temperature. This process causes the outer layers to pulse as they heat and expand, and then cool and contract. The core contracts and heats up as the last of its fuel is used. It becomes so hot that it expels ultraviolet radiation into the inner parts of the surrounding cloud, ionizing it. This process is called a planetary
Stage 10 in the death of a star, you would start to think that with the core collapsing, that the star would just collapse and break apart. However, this only happens with starts under ¼ Sol and takes about a hundred billion years at the least. However, a star like our Sun, doesn’t die quite that quickly. Even under all the collapsing and expanding as a Red Giant, the core starts to burn helium in its core. Once this burning is about 100 million Kelvin and the density in the core has risen to the right level, the helium begins to fuse with carbon, which causes the reactor in the centre of the star to
evaporating due to the extreme radiation from the star. This is the first time something like this
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.
When a sun like star like the sun sheds most of it’s mass it is called a planetary nebula.
Type II supernova results from the rapid collapse and explosion of a massive star. For a star to explode as a type II supernova it must be several times more massive than the sun. it is estimated that their mass must be at least 8 times greater than that of the sun, but no more than 40-50 times the suns mass.
Next, there are the observations of novae. Novae are stars that show a sudden increase in brightness before returning back to their original
The Supernova is a new thrill ride that is coming to an exciting park this upcoming year. While designs are still being finalized, roller coaster enthusiasts have already exclaimed how exhilarated they are to ride it. It will reach speed up to 104 miles per hour and will also feature a 45 meter drop at 65 degrees.
By running out of fuel the star is no longer able to oppose gravity and keep itself stable so it collapses on itself until it reaches a singularity. Once it becomes a black hole it can have a mass ranging from just a few times the mass of our sun to over a billion times. The gravity of a black hole varies with its size however the center of a black hole is considered a singularity due to its ability to have an enormous amount of mass in an infinitely small space. A black hole is seen as black due to its escape velocity being greater than the speed of light, because it is faster than light no light can escape therefore there is none for us to view making it appear black. An objects escape velocity is the speed required for an object to leave an objects field of
A supernova is a marvelous thing that happens in space, and scientists are trying to use these explosions of stars to learn more about our expanding galaxy with the debris and elements that explode from the supernova, the largest explosion in space which can outshine many galaxies. Since the stars is a large distance away, when the supernova does happen, it would have actually happened a couple hundred years ago, because the light takes many years to reach our eyes. A supernova can happen in two different ways, known by a Type 1 supernova and a Type 2 supernova.
When a star "dies" it can do many different things. It can form a neutron star, expand to a red giant and shrink into a white dwarf, or sometimes collapse upon itself to form a black hole. This is mostly dependent on the density of the star. When massive stars, those twenty times the mass of our Sun or more die, they must either exhaust all of their excess mass or implode upon themselves and form black holes. Gravity overwhelms even the nuclear forces. The gravitational force becomes so strong that nothing can escape it, even photons of light, hence the name "black" hole.