The Fate of the Stars
All scenes › Chapter 3 A heavy star: supernova and neutron star
Supernova
The outer layers bounce off and the star blows apart
View in 3DSupernova
The moment the collapsed center packs into a hard ball, the outer layers falling onto it bounce off. The star flashes and blows apart. This is a supernova. The debris flies out in every direction at about 10,000 km per second, and for weeks it shines as bright as a whole galaxy.
Why?The bounce alone is not enough. Huge numbers of tiny particles pour out of the collapsed center, heat the outer layers and push them outward, and that makes the explosion.
Learn moreThese particles are called neutrinos. When a supernova went off in a neighboring galaxy in 1987, detectors on Earth caught about 20 of them. In 1054, astronomers in Song dynasty China recorded a “guest star” bright enough to see in daytime. Its remains are today’s Crab Nebula.
- When
- About 12 million years old
- Star we are watching
- Supernova
- Size · state
- Debris speed: about 10,000 km per second
Read more
Wikipedia: Supernova · Wikipedia: SN 1987A · Wikipedia: SN 1054
More in the series
Lifetimes and sizes are typical values from models of how stars change (approximate). The black hole horizon size and the teaspoon masses are calculated with official constants. Sizes, distances and speeds in the 3D view are a rough sketch.