Introduction
Till now man kind has saw various bomb explosion and there devastating effect till, but if we compare them to explosion occuring in space, then they are like grain of sand compared to earth. supernova are one of the most powerful explosions occurring in space and they hold the power to shake the entire galaxy. Only one supernova has power equal to few octallion (1 followed by 27 zeros) nuclear bomb. And now we are going to tell you everything about supernova so are you all ready, So let's dive right in.
What is supernova ?
supernova in simple words are the largest explosions occurring in space due to collapse of the star’s core. The supernova mostly occurs when a large star loses its fuel and due to which the star core collapses into itself which causes a large explosion called supernova.
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| Supernova, Image source : Science news |
This is a very devastating and rare event which occurs roughly 3 times a century. The supernova can give birth to a pulsar, neutron star, white dwarf or even to a black hole. This event has a brightness equivalent to 570 billion sun’s brightness together.
What causes supernova ?
supernova occur during the end of star life. When the star is at a young age, the hydrogen due to nuclear fusion gets converted into helium which causes huge output of energy and radiation. This radiation and energy help the star to fight with its gravitational force.
But when the source of hydrogen gets finished the nuclear fusion on star stops and no energy then is available to stop gravitation. And then the entire surface of the star collapses into its core due to gravity. And after the collapse, the entire thing explodes with a large amount of energy.
The energy released is so intense that even if the star is present light years away from us, We could see the explosion with our naked eyes, whether it is a day or a night. If we study history properly we could get various instances where people see very bright objects in the sky day and night, and these all were supernova explosions.
How many types of supernova ?
Till now humanity has observed many supernova and on the basis of their power and light emitted and reason behind bursting we categorise all the supernova in two sections.
Type I supernova
Type 1 or Type 1a is the most devastating kind of supernova. It usually occurs with a binary pair of star or white dwarf stars. In the binary pair of the star the first star is white dwarf and the companion star could be any star. When the white draft starts to gain mass and energy from its binary pair star, it starts to grow bigger which causes it to cross the limit of gravitation or the Chandrasekhar limit due to which the Type 1a supernova occurs.
In this type of supernova the explosion occurs due to gaining more mass which causes it to explode. In this process the binary star is thrown very far in deep space. And it completely destroys the stars and forms a nebula. This nebula has all the different content of stars.
Type II supernova
Type 2 supernova also have a very devastating effect. It occurs at the end of a star's life cycle. It occurs with most big stars, When the star has finished with the source of hydrogen. The star starts to stop the nuclear fusion reaction due to which the energy production and radiation also stops from the star. Which causes the star to collapse in the core and then burst with a massive explosion.
This type of supernova explosion occurs due an insufficient amount of hydrogen presence in the star. After the explosion either a black hole, neutron star, pulsar, or a white dwarf star is formed. The factors that affect what the star will become are its size and composition.
Effects of supernova
This catastrophic effect of supernova has a large impact all over the entire galaxy. The supernova explosion and just evaporates any surrounding planet or celestial body, the explosion has such a kind of impact That the shock wave could be felt surrounding the galaxy also. The explosion has a power equal to few octallion (1 followed by 27 zeros) nuclear bomb and emit light equal to 570 billion sun’s brightness together.
In a binary pair of stars, if one star explodes due to a massive amount of energy released, the binary star is thrown into deep space with a high acceleration. If one such explosion occurs in our galaxy the light emitted will be so bright that even if the star is light year away, The light can be seen by naked eyes day and night.
See below there is an image which shows how bright the supernova is. The large spot is the light of the supernova and it is present in that galaxy. You can see how much area the explosion has covered.
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| Supernova, Image source : Insight observatory |
What forms after the supernova ?
After the supernova, depending on the composition and size of the star, the star can turn into various things like a black hole, Neutron star, Pulsar or a white dwarf. Now we will tell you how they are formed.
White dwarf
When the star is medium or low in size, and it explodes in a supernova explosion. Then the surface of the star is lost in space and the star is left with a very dense core which is called White dwarf. The white dwarf comes under the category of one of the densest materials in the world, and has a size as large as earth. The star still glows due to electron degeneracy.
Neutron star
When the star is Large or little higher in size, it explodes into a supernova. Then the surface of the star collapses into the star’s core which causes a huge explosion. But most of the mass is not lost by the object during the explosion. Due to which it is compressed into a size of 20- 23 km in diameter, but has a 15 to 25 solar mass and this is called Neutron star.
Which causes it to be super dense. After Black holes neutron stars are the densest matter in the universe. It is dead and does not emit any light But has a super powerful gravitational pull.
Pulsar
Pulsars come under the category of neutron stars only, but the difference is that the pulsars are rotating at a very high speed and have an extremely strong magnetic field. The pulsar rotates at 43,000 rpm (716 times a sec).
They have a special character in them they release very strong magnetic radiation from their poles. Which could be only seen when it hit earth. The magnetic radiation is very strong and photons particles (light particles) are also released . The release of magnetic radiations occurs at non uniform time. The pulsar is the fastest moving object in space.
Black holes
When the star is extremely large in size, and its surface gets collapsed into the core of the star. And a massive supernova occurs. The core due to more mass of the star gets extremely dense and reaches the point of black holes density. Which causes it to get converted into a black hole.
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| Black hole, Image source : Nasa |
The black hole is the densest object in the universe. The size of black hole depends upon the size of the star. The black hole has such a strong magnetic field that it can even absorb an entire star and doesn’t even allow light to pass through it.
Conclusion
So this was all for today ,and we hope that you would have got some new knowledge today about supernova. The important point of post were -
- Only one supernova has power equal to few octallion (1 followed by 27 zeros) nuclear bomb.
- The supernova mostly occurs when a large star loses its fuel and due to which the star core collapses into itself which causes a large explosion called supernova.
- This event has a brightness equivalent to 570 billion sun’s brightness together.
- When the source of hydrogen gets finished the nuclear fusion on the star stops and no energy then is available to stop gravitation. And then the entire surface of the star collapses into its core due to gravity. And after the collapse, the entire thing explodes with a large amount of energy.
- Type 1 supernova usually occurs with a binary pair of star or white dwarf stars.
- Type 2 supernova occur at the end of a star's life cycle. It occurs with most big stars
- In white dwarf formation star is medium or low in size
- In neutron star formation star is medium or little higher in size
- In pulsar star formation star is medium or little higher in size
- In black hole formation star is extremely large in size
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