Supernova

Life Cycle of a Star

-Nebula --Massive Star- Red Supergiant- Supernova-- Black Hole or Neutron Star. --Average Star- Red Giant- Planetary Nebula- White Dwarf.

What Causes a Supernova

A Massive Star will use up all of its hydrogen, leaving nothing to fuel it. After a few years with no source of energy it will run out of energy. During this process the core of the Star turns to iron and the Star will become unstable. This causes the star to become a Red Supergiant. The Star will continue to become more and more unstable which will cause a nuclear reaction in the core causing the Star to go Supernova.

Visible Supernovas

A Supernova happens about once every hundred years in the Milky Way, and if you were looking at the right time on the right day you would a big flash of light for sometimes (Not usually this one was just so far away it took awhile for the light to reach us, usually only a few hours) a hundreds of years, as the star is destroyed. Then you would see nothing no light coming from the star at all. The last know Supernova Kelper's Supernova (also called SN 1604) happened in April, 2011, this Supernova was first observed by Johnannes Kelper on October 17, 1601!

Just how Much Energy?

A Supernova may radiate more energy in a few days than the Sun does in 100 million years, and the energy expended in ejecting material is even much greater than this. In many cases, including the Crab nebula Supernova, the stellar remnant left behind after the explosion is a neutron star or a pulsar.

Red Giant

A large old reddish star that is greatly expanded and cooled as its fuel has begun to run out.

Planetary Nebula

A nebula that was once thought to be a star with its planets but is now thought to be a very hot star surrounded by an expanding envelope of ionized gases that emit a fluorescent glow because of intense radiation from the star.

Massive Star

A star that is many times bigger then our Sun, these stars can or will collapse in on them selves and form a Black Hole after the Supernova.

After a Supernova

After a Supernova the star will become a Neutron Star, giving off very little light. If it is big enough the Star could collapse in on it self making it a Black Hole. We have recently found that anything with enough gravity can collapse in on it self and become a Black Hole, so even you or I could.

Black Hole

Final stage in the evolution of a massive star, where the cores mass collapses to a point that its gravity is so strong that not even light can escape its grip.

Introduction

Have you ever heard about a Supernova and how big it is, well I can tell you about the biggest Supernova in the history of the Universe! In the next five minutes you will learn just about everything there is to know about a Supernova, you may even see one!

Inside a Supernova

If you were in a Supernova you would see many different colors flying everywhere, this is because the Star is releasing gases of many types. You would also see the star get literally pulled apart, and parts flying everywhere. If the star is close enough then parts of the star could land on Earth! You would see the stars and planets around it (if it has any) be incinerated and engulfed!

The First Known Supernova

In 1054, Chinese astronomers observed the "guest star" that created the Crab nebula. The Crab nebula is visible in the constellation Taurus.

New Find, Old Supernova

In 2000 astronomers determined that the Veil Nebula was the remnants of a Supernova. The Veil Nebula stretches across Earth skies as widely as six Moon diameters. The explosion took place about 5,000 years ago at a distance of only 1,400 light-years. It may have lit up the night as brightly as the full Moon.

Start of a Supernova

In January 2008 astronomers witnessed the birth of a Supernova. Experts had been monitoring a small exploding star for almost a month from images captured by the Swift X-Ray telescope. Throughout that time the star had appeared on the computer screen as a fuzzy smudge, but on January 9, 2008 the smudge suddenly burst into a brilliant eruption that continued for five minutes before disappearing.

Before Our Solar System

It is possible that one or more Supernovas exploded shortly before the formation of our solar system. Elements ejected from these explosions could have mixed with the solar nebula, eventually becoming part of the structures of the Sun, the Earth, and all living things.

Nebula

Large cloud of gas and dust that contracts under gravitational force and breaks apart into smaller pieces, each of which might collapse to form a star

White Dwarf

Stage in which a star has used up its helium and its outer layers escape into space, leaving behind a hot, dense core, this dead star will still give out little amounts of light.

Speed of the Burn Out

Stars with large masses burn their nuclear fuel very rapidly. Within a million years or less, such stars build cores containing much iron. When the iron eventually burns, energy is quickly drained from the core. The star cannot continue to support itself against gravity. It suffers a mighty collapse analogous to that of a type 1 Supernova. The rebound causes matter to be ejected in a type 2 Supernova explosion. Stars ending in this way are typically Red Supergiants.

Conclusion

Supernovas don't just affect the Universe they affect everything, without Supernovas there would be no Earth because there would be no star pieces to be collected into Planets and even the Sun!

Supernova's Impact

Supernovas have played an important role both in producing the heavy elements and in ejecting material back into space, where it has been used to make new stars and, probably, planets and planetary systems.

Febuary. 23. 1987

The SN 1987A was one of the most interesting supernovas seen recently. An astronomer at Chile's Las Campanas Observatory detected the event in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It quickly became an object of intense study by all the means available to modern astronomy. Its radiations could be observed across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. Its neutrino emissions could also be studied.

What will Happen when the Sun goes Supernova

The Sun will engulf the inner Planets as it turns into a Red Giant, it will only take eight minutes to reach Earth! When it engulfs Venus we will already be gone, because the Earth will get so hot it will return to its original state, a rock filled with lava, and if you survive the super heat, you will not survive the Earth getting engulfed. We have no need to worry though because the Sun will not go Supernova ever! The Sun is too small to go Supernova, instead it will become a Planetary Nebula.

Birth of a Star

The birth a a star is much like a Supernova, but the star is being formed not created, if you were watching the birth of a star it would be much similar, only the gas would being going in not out, the gas will then compress and a star will be born.

Nuetron Star

The small, dense remains of a high-mass star after it goes Supernova.

Red Supergiant

The stage in the life cycle of a massive star during which the star increases in size and becomes very bright due to the increase of instability.

Types of Supernovas

There are two common types of Supernovas, called type 1 and type 2. Type 1 occurs among old stars of small mass, probably white dwarfs, while type 2 occurs among very young stars of large mass. It is not known how a small-mass star can release the very large amounts of energy needed to explain type 1 Supernovas. Scientists generally believe that this must involve binary systems, two stars revolving around each other. In such a system one of the stars is a white dwarf, a small, dense star near the end of its nuclear burning phase. After attracting matter from the companion star for some time, the white dwarf eventually collapses with a great rush. It condenses into a neutron star and ejects matter outward. This rebound of matter is thought to be the supernova.

Supernova

This is when a Massive Star uses up all of its fuel, the core will then turn into iron (which is like a poison to a star) and the star will explode.