Supernovae In A Short History Of Nearly Everything

442 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Different types of supernovae

Supernovae What makes you want to turn a page in a book? This would be the interesting topics throughout the book. In the novel “A Short History of Nearly Everything” Supernovae in part one makes for an interesting story. Did you know a supernovae could blow up planet earth? Well it can. What exactly is a supernova? Supernovaes happen when a piece of matter out in space called a star suddenly explode. When these stars explode they are much bigger than you could ever imagine. They send out a pulse of energy with the power of the gods flow through the universe burning forever. In the novel “A Short history of Nearly everything” by Bill Bryson they talk about how a supernovae is just like a trillion hydrogen bombs going off at once. Could you ever imagine that happening to our planet. That is basically a supernovae. …show more content…

Just imagine a supernovae exploding 24 light years away and it could still make us extinct again. Let's say this supernovae was further away. It would still make the earth a nuclear waste zone by destroying the ozone layer and letting ultra violet rays in. That means that our would could literally be scorched.Also let's say this supernovae just passed by earth. It would be quite a light show but again if it gets to close it could have lasting damage on the earth we live on. A supernovae happens where there is a change in the core, or center, of a star. A change can occur in two different ways with both resulting in a supernova.
The first type of supernovae happens in binary star systems.The Binary stars are two stars that orbit on the same area. One of the stars, steals matter from its companion star. Eventually, the star collects too much matter. Having too much matter causes the star to explode, which makes a supernovae.The second type of supernovae occurs at

Show More
Related

  • Star Betelgeuse Lifecycle

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    When itBetelgeuse cannot fuse anymore anything over iron, the star will not have enough energy to make heat. Eventually, the core will collapse. When Betelgeuse collapses, it is so strong and powerful that it causes the outer layers to rebound. With the rebound it will have an explosion, which is called a Supernova (Type two). The explosion has so much energy and power that the temperature becomes really hot. The temperature is so hot that it can use the fusion process much heavier than iron. The elements that were given off from the explosion are sent throughout space and are now new nebula. When the Supernova is done, it has left behind a star called a Neutron star. They form when atoms of the core of a dead star are crushed together and the end result produces neutrons. The neutrons are with electrons that are degenerate on the surface. Many Neutron stars have magnetic fields and they give off strong waves of radiation from their poles. These types of Neutron Stars are known as Pulsars.

    Read More

  • Black Holes In Christopher Nolan's Film Interstellar

    427 Words  | 1 Pages

    Imagine a massive celestial object in space, so densely packed with matter that nothing can ever escape it, not even light- that’s what black holes are. They are formed by large stars- stars that are way larger in size (20 times or more) than the sun. When such massive stars run out of fuel in its course, it can no longer sustain its heavy weight. They rapidly collapse causing colossal of explosions called supernova.

    Read More

  • How a Star is Born

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since my entire thesis for this paper is about how a star is born, I guess the first thing I should start out with is by telling you exactly what a star is. Stars are self-luminous gaseous spheres. They shine by generating their own energy and radiating it off into space. The stars' fuel for energy generation is the stuff they are made of --hydrogen, helium, carbon, etc. -- which they burn by converting these elements into heavier elements. Nuclear fusion occurs, which is when the nuclei of atoms fuse into nuclei of heavier atoms.

    Read More

  • Black Holes

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stars explode at the end of their lifetime, sometimes when they explode the stars leave a remnant of gasses and, dust behind. What the gasses come together to form depend on the size of the remnant. If the remnant is less than 1.4 solar masses it will become a white dwarf, a hot dead star that is not bright enough to shine. If the remnant is roughly 1.4 solar masses, it will collapse. “The protons and electrons will be squashed together, and their elementary particles will recombine to form neutrons”. What results from this reaction is called a neut...

    Read More

  • Orion Nebula

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Orion Nebula is an emission nebula because of the O-type and B-type stars contained within it. These high-temperature stars emit ultraviolet (UV) light that ionizes the surrounding hydrogen atoms into protons (H+) and electrons (e-). When the protons and electrons recombine, the electrons enter a higher energy level (n=3). Then, when the electron drops from the n=3 level to the n=2 level, an Hphoton is emitted. 2 This photon has a wavelength of 6563 Å, and therefore corresponds to the red portion of the visible spectrum. It is these H photons which give the nebula the distinctive red color which we see.

    Read More

  • Earthquake Research Paper

    752 Words  | 2 Pages

    What are earthquakes? An earthquake is what happens when two pieces of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter, or focus.

    Read More

  • Supernovae: A Cataclysmic Effect of Pure Irony

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    supernova's what are they and where are they, what are these giant enigma's that scatter the universe. Supernova's come in all shapes and sizes, yet all of them are so bright that they can be seen from every point in the universe. A supernova is an extremely violent event but it is also the reason for everything we see around us. Every molecule in our universe was born from supernovae. They outshine entire galaxy's and can release trillions of times the amount of energy in our sun. They are so violent that if one went off a few hundred light years away from us it would wipe out our entire galaxy, the wave of radiation would vaporize and scorch our atmosphere. If a supernova died close enough for its explosion to reach us, it would hit us before we knew about it. By the time we figured out that it was coming it would of hit us the day before. While the sudden burst of X- rays and radiation would destroy the surface of the earth, including all plant life, all vegetative entity’s, many of the animal species, I suppose cockroaches would be okay. even if we went into safe hiding underground or registered shelters of safety the plant life would be the first to falter, no plant life really upsets the food chain, mass extinction would not take very long.

    Read More

  • Cosmic Life and Death of a Star

    1612 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stars are born in the interstellar clouds of gas and dust called nebulae that are primarily found in the spiral arms of galaxies. These clouds are composed mainly of hydrogen gas but also contain carbon, oxygen and various other elements, but we will see that the carbon and oxygen play a crucial role in star formation so they get special mention. A nebula by itself is not enough to form a star however, and it requires the assistance of some outside force. A close passing star or a shock wave from a supernova or some other event can have just the needed effect. It is the same idea as having a number of marbles on a trampoline and then rolling a larger ball through the middle of them or around the edges. The marbles will conglomerate around the path of the ball, and as more marbles clump together, still more will be attracted. This is essentially what happens during the formation of a star (Stellar Birth, 2004).

    Read More

  • Stellar Evolution

    2295 Words  | 5 Pages

    A star begins as nothing more than a very light distribution of interstellar gases and dust particles over a distance of a few dozen lightyears. Although there is extremely low pressure existing between stars, this distribution of gas exists instead of a true vacuum. If the density of gas becomes larger than .1 particles per cubic centimeter, the interstellar gas grows unstable. Any small deviation in density, and because it is impossible to have a perfectly even distribution in these clouds this is something that will naturally occur, and the area begins to contract. This happens because between about .1 and 1 particles per cubic centimeter, pressure gains an inverse relationship with density. This causes internal pressure to decrease with increasing density, which because of the higher external pressure, causes the density to continue to increase. This causes the gas in the interstellar medium to spontaneously collect into denser clouds. The denser clouds will contain molecular hydrogen (H2) and interstellar dust particles including carbon compounds, silicates, and small impure ice crystals. Also, within these clouds, there are 2 types of zones. There are H I zones, which contain neutral hydrogen and often have a temperature around 100 Kelvin (K), and there are H II zones, which contain ionized hydrogen and have a temperature around 10,000 K. The ionized hydrogen absorbs ultraviolet light from it’s environment and retransmits it as visible and infrared light. These clouds, visible to the human eye, have been named nebulae. The density in these nebulae is usually about 10 atoms per cubic centimeter. In brighter nebulae, there exists densities of up to several thousand atoms per cubic centimete...

    Read More

  • What Is The Planetary Nebula?

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is the life stage that comes right after the stage called Red Giant. It is also right before the stage called white dwarf. The Planetary Nebula is the outer layer of a star that's lost when a Red Giant transforms into a white dwarf. A Planetary Nebula is basically a cloud of gas and dust that has formed in

    Read More

  • The Solar System

    4094 Words  | 9 Pages

    Faculae are bright luminous hydrogen clouds which form above regions where sunspots are about to form. Flares are bright filaments of hot gas emerging from sunspot regions. Sunspots are dark depressions on the photosphere with a typical temp...

    Read More

  • Different Types of Supernovas

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    A supernova is an explosion of a massive supergiant star. It may shine with a brightness of 10 billion suns! The total energy output may be 10^44 joules, as much as the total output of the sun during its 10 billion year lifetime. The likely scenario is fusion proceeds to build up a core of iron. The “iron group” of elements around mass number A=60 are the most tightly bound nuclei, so no more energy can be gotten from nuclear fusion. Supernovas are classified at Type one if their light curves exhibit sharp maxima and then die away gradually. The maxima may be about 10 billion solar luminosities. Type two supernovas have less sharp peaks at maxima and peak at about 1 billion solar luminosities. They die away more sharply than Type one. Type two supernovas are not observed to occur in elliptical galaxies, and are thought to occur in population one type stars in the spiral arms of galaxies. Type one supernovas occur typically occur in elliptical galaxies, so they are probably Population type two stars. With the observation of a number of supernovas in other galaxies a more refined classification of supernovas has been developed based on the observed spectra. Th...

    Read More

  • Earthquake Essay

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    An earthquake is the shaking of the ground caused by sudden release of energy inside the earth's crust. It's the breaking and moving of tectonic plates along a fault line. Earthquakes can range in size from weak where we don't feel them to extremely violent where they actually thow people around and destroy cities. They may be a result of geological faults or other activites such as volcanoes, landslides, mine blasts and nuclear tests. An earthquake is not always naturally caused.

    Read More

  • The Life and Death of Supernovae

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everything in the world dies, even stars. A supernova occurs when a star “dies.” A supernova is the explosion of a star. These explosions release huge amounts of energy, an amount equivalent to a few octillion nuclear warheads, or one million tons of TNT. One supernova will radiate more energy that our son will its entire lifetime. Supernovae play a huge part in the galaxy by being a primary source of heavy elements in the universe Throughout a large stars life, they create heavy elements within their core. When one of these stars star explodes, it releases the heavy elements into the galaxy. The elements then disperse and move on to create new stars and the cycle continues anew.

    Read More

  • Earthquake Essay

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    An earthquake occurs when there is a shaking of the Earth, caused by a buildup of energy in volcanic or tectonic form (“Earthquakes”). Essentially, an earthquake results from sections of the Earth moving, causing slippage. When two chunks of the Earth slip past each other, the point at which this happens is called the fault plane. In fact, an earthquake begins in the hypocenter beneath the Earth’s surface. Next, located right above the hypocenter is the epicenter (Wald). And finally, the main, and most important thing to remember about earthquakes is that they are random, and extremely hard to predict (“Earthquakes”).

    Read More

More about Supernovae In A Short History Of Nearly Everything

Open Document