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Running Head: Supernovae

The Phenomenon of the

Infamous Supernova
Yvette Ruiz

Supernovae

Its hard to look into the night sky when youre in your backyard and be able to
distinguish whether the little white dot in the sky could really be. There are various options as to
which you could be looking at. It can be a distant planet, or possibly white dwarf. It might even
be a very distant sun-like object or maybe, just maybe, it may be a supernova. It would be quite a
sight to be able to observe a supernova with the naked eye, but unfortunately our eyes arent that
powerful. Luckily, with the help present-day telescopes and space probes, we can have a better
glimpse on what is in our universe, especially the origins of supernovae.
A supernova itself is just as rad as it sounds. Anything with the prefix super must be
grand enough to earn such a term. A supernova is basically an explosion. The unique explosion is
always the ending life of a star. These massive cosmic detonations release huge amounts of
tremendous energy and also tend to be extremely luminous. Supernovae are special enough to be
natures most energetic explosions, leaving the mind a vivid picture on just how massive these
things really are.
There are different types of supernovae but there are mainly two ways to better classify
the explosions: Type I and Type II. Type II supernovae usually are at the end of a massive stars
lifetime. This is when a stars nuclear fuel is exhausted to the point as to where the stars iron
core becomes massive to later explode as a supernova. A small insight as to what exactly
happens in the core goes a little something like this. The stars core contracts, causing nuclear
reactions begin. After the fusion occurs for some time, iron becomes a great part of the core,
causing it to no longer sustain nuclear fusion. In the blink of an eye, the iron atoms become so
closely packed together that it eventually creates recoil of the squeezed core. Soon after, the
pressure causes the explosion of a supernova.

Supernovae
Type I supernovae are just as exciting. . Type I supernovae sometimes occur in binary star
systems in which a white dwarf is accreting from neighboring star. The most popular scenario for
a Type I supernova being when the white dwarfs mass piles on heavy onto its core, where it
reaches a critical density. While this is happening, the stars core contracts, causing nuclear
reactions begin. The result ending in an uncontrolled fusion of carbon and oxygen, thereby
detonating the star. Oddly enough, white dwarfs are around the same size of Earth, but very
dense, allowing the dwarf to have a strong enough gravitational pull that allows it to grab
material from a star that is close enough to it. Sometimes, in the aftermath of these supernovae, a
neutron star is left behind as evidence of the explosion. In other cases as to where there was a
massive star supernova, if it was massive enough, it can leave a black hole as its own evidence of
existence.
The aftermaths of these massive explosions are extraordinary as well. When the
explosion occurs, matter is shot out at up to 25,000 miles per second. This drives a shock wave
into the interstellar medium. Supernovae often times outshine everything else in its galaxy with
then excessive luminosity that it emits.
In conclusion, these phenomenal events that occur in our universe are utterly unique in
every single way possible with a few similarities between one and another. The aftermaths of
supernovae must give us an insight on just maybe how our universe might end, but satisfying
enough, we know that our Sun wont go out like this. The next time we see a supernova close to
us wont be anytime soon though.

Supernovae
References
Marschall, L. (2011, January). Supernovae. Retrieved from
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/supernovae2.html
Supernovae: Cosmic Explosions. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/supernovae-article/
Supernova. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/supernova