Get to Know Supernova, Incredible Star Explosion
- space.com
VIVA – It turns out that stars can look bigger than the sun. When a giant star has been surrounded by thick material, then only a few years later, this star will explode or usually known as Supernova.
The supernova phenomenon is the end of a star's life which is marked by an explosion, and the largest stellar explosion ever known to humans.
As quoted from the Space arXiv website on September 15, 2022, this is the latest finding from the astronomy team through the journal published on the arXiv database that has found signs of a dying star.
As a large star nears the end of its lifespan, it will go through several phases before getting there.
Starting from mixing of hydrogen with heavier elements, then helium which moves to carbon, oxygen, magnesium, and silicon. Then, the star will form iron in its core.
Ledakan supernova dari bintang raksasa.
- Space.com
Iron absorbs energy rather than releasing it. It means the end for the star, and in less than a few minutes, it turns into a fantastic explosion called a supernova.
Meanwhile, as they near the end of their lifetime, these giant stars swell to extreme sizes.
They also become very bright, even tens of thousands of times brighter than the sun, but the surface of the star is so inflated, its outer temperature drops, making it appear as a red giant.
One of the most famous examples is Betelgeuse, located in our solar system, this star would be 11 times more massive than the Sun.
In other instances, astronomers looked back at some old catalogs and found pictures of stars before they exploded, all looking like Betelgeuse.
The sheath is denser than that measured around Betelgeuse. The material's heating from the initial shock wave causes the brightness to last for a long time. There is just more stuff lying around to keep it shining properly after the first sign of the explosion.
