SUPERNOVA GEORGE

The energy emitted from a supernova is more than all the starlight in our galaxy

The glorious event of a star exploding, known as a supernovae, occur usually once every 25-100 years in any average spiral galaxy such as our Milky Way Galaxy. Amoung the most powerful events in the universe, a supernova is estimated to release an equivalent energy up to 1 million trillion trillion megatons of TNT, as estimated by scientists. Over 600 supernovas have been observed by powerful modern telescopes, but though supernovas are classified as massive explosions, they are rarely ever seen because with this enormous energy also the exploding material of the star causes a shield which may shield the magnificent event to the human eyes. As a matter af fact, the last supernovae to be witnessed was by the revered Danish astronomrer Tycho Brache. Now known as Tycho's Supernova Remnant, the original shockwave that was generated continues to expand into the gas and dust.

A person may look at a supernovae and just figure that it is just any regular event, but a supernovae is more than the eye can see. Originally when a star forms, it's inner core is very dense and consists of hydrogen. After a star has burned brightly for billons of years, this dense hydrogen core turns to an iron core. As gravity increase, the star starts to collapse under its own weight until the gravity finally is too much and an maraculous explosion occurs.

Though the outer atmosphere of the star will eject into space, a dense white dwarf core sometimes survive the explosion. This white dwarf or neutron star may become a planet again if the gravity is graet enougn and there are and interstellar shock waves. Though if the gravity of the neutron star is too great, then the star will eventually collapse forming a blackhole. This blackhole, called so because of the intense gravity that even light cannot escape, are virtually impossible to detect unless if a nearby star shines bright enough.

This page was written by COLWAYNE GEORGE in the Astronomy Class of BCC/Broward County. July 1998, C/O 2000