What is Supernova?

  SUPERNOVA

April 25, 2021

Hello, my sci buddies! Hoping your weekend went great.  I am back with a new topic for my inquisitive readers. Today we will be diving into an astronomical event! We will look into the life of stars.

Stars! they come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Like the blue giant, the red giant, the red supergiant, even our Sun is a type of star called G2V yellow dwarf. Yet despite these differences, most of them meet their end with a SUPERNOVA.

Supernova is a powerful luminous stellar explosion. It is a massive explosion that takes place at the end of a star's life cycle. 

Well, a supernova occurs when there is a change in the core or of a star. Now, this change can happen in two different forms, both resulting in a supernova.

1) Let us look at the type of supernova that happens in the binary star systems, consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. During the process, one of the stars a carbon-oxygen white dwarf takes matter from its partner star. Eventually, the white dwarf gathers so much matter that makes it difficult to digest and causes the star to blast, resulting in a supernova. 

2) The other type of supernova happens at the end of a single star's lifetime. As the star runs out of nuclear fuel, some of its mass flows into the core. Eventually, the center part of the star is so heavy that it cannot withstand its own gravitational force. Finally, the core collapses, and all the matter and radiation blasts out, which results in the monstrous eruption that we call a supernova. 

But wait! What about the Sun. It is also a single star. Well, fortunately not all stars end with a supernova. Sun does not have enough mass to become a supernova or else, it would have been a significant threat to our solar system. 

Now, let's talk about some facts about a supernova.

A supernova burns only for a short duration, but it can tell scientists a lot about the universe. Yes, one kind of supernova has revealed to scientists that we live in an expanding universe. They also have discovered that a supernova plays an important role in spreading elements all around the universe. Yes, when the star burst it shoots elements and debris into space. Many of the elements we find on are made in the core of stars. These elements travel on to form new planets, stars, and everything else in the universe. 

I am kind of loving all these space theories just after I did research on black holes and the big bang. So I decided to take up one more topic from the wonders of space.