➥ There are different types of supernova, and they are created in two different ways. When a star with a mass a few times larger than our Sun runs out of fuel towards the end of its lifetime, it turns into a red super giant that collapses. If the star’s iron core is massive, enough it will become a supernova. This star ends up as a neutron star or even a black hole. A neutron star is extremely dense, and it contains the remains of the star’s compressed core of a star which has exploded.
➥ A supernova can also be created when a white dwarf star has drawn enough material from a companion star to raise its core temperature enough to ignite carbon fusion.
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➥ The violent explosion of a massive star makes the expanding gases to glow briefly and brightly. During this short interval, a supernova can radiate as much energy as our Sun could emit over its life span. The explosion expels much or all of the star’s material and causes a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium. The interstellar medium is the gas and dust that exists between the stars within a galaxy.
➥ Astronomers have witnessed supernovae in many nearby galaxies; however, they are relatively rare events in our galaxy. In a galaxy like the Milky Way, it only occurs about once every 50 years. Supernovae have been recorded as far back as 185 A.D., when Chinese astronomers recorded a short-lived star. Supernovae have played an important role in superstition, and the appearance of a supernova was taken as a sign to the end of the world, or as a punishment of an angry God.
➥ The last supernovae to be seen in the Milky Way was Kepler’s Supernova which was first observed in 1604 (also known as Supernova 1604 or Kepler’s Star). Since then no supernova has been indisputably observed in our galaxy, though many outside our galaxy has.
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➥ The supernova remnant from Kepler’s Star is still studied. A supernova remnant is what is left after the explosion. The remnants play an important role and all the elements heavier than boron is made in either a star or a supernova explosion. The remnants heat up the gas and dust between stars, and distribute heavy elements throughout the Galaxy. If it were not for the remnants there would be no Sun or Earth, so we are made of stardust. We are made of the same elements that stars are made of, and these elements are released when a star explodes.
➥ Another famous remnant is the Crab Nebula, which exploded in 1054, and the Cygnus Loop. In 1987 there was a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud – Supernova 1987 A.
➥ Astronomers learn about the size of the universe and the bodies in it when they are studying supernovae. Supernovae created the materials in the Solar System, and a supernova will probably destroy our solar system.
