Supernova
Supernova is not just a massive explosion formed due
to death of huge star, to know what supernova is and how it is formed we should
know the life cycle of star.
So, as we know any star in the universe run on
hydrogen fuel which is similar to nuclear reactor in which the hydrogen atoms collide
with each other and forms helium releasing heat and light. As heat and light
are released the weight of helium will be less than hydrogen, but what happens
when they run out of hydrogen? The star starts to contract becoming smaller.
And, as the core of the star contracts, it gets hotter. This makes the upper
layers of the star expand, and as the star expands, it turns into a red giant.
When the core is hot enough the helium starts to transform into carbon, once the
helium gets used up, the core expands and starts cooling down, similarly carbon
transforms into oxygen and the process goes on.
The fusion process occurring in the star forms energy
whose pressure is towards outward direction of the star where the center of
gravity is in the core of the star. But the problem occurs when the fuel of the
star comes to end which cause the outer layer of star to explode and forms
planetary nebula.
After the removal of outer layer, it becomes white
dwarf and remains live for billions of years, then into black dwarf. But all
the star's do not form into white dwarf if the stars are 10^4 times bigger than
sun they cannot balance their mass and their core shrinks which normally
contains most of iron atoms, this sudden shrinkage occurs as the star's gravity
cause it to collapse and due to this shrinkage, the outer layer of the star
explodes and this huge explosion is known as supernova.
There is another process of forming supernova, now
lets us talk about a solar system having two star's, if these stars are nearer to each other after
death one star it becomes white dwarf which is capable of soaking large amount
of energy from another rotating in opposite direction due to this process large
amount of hydrogen and helium starts gathering in white dwarf, as time passes
the white dwarf becomes more heavier and unbalanced, now the white dwarf is a type of bomb which
can explode any time due to large amount of gravitational energy and nuclear
energy is stored in it. When carbon and oxygen form into iron the huge
explosion occur and large amount of iron and other elements spills in the
space. According to scientist’s large amount of iron in earth is due to
supernova.
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