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Supernovas and Remnants (Illustrations)
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Artist's Concept: A close-up of SN 2006gy (Unlabeled)
This artist's illustration shows what the brightest supernova ever recorded, known as SN 2006gy, may have looked like. The fireworks-like material (white) shows the explosive death of an extremely massive star. Before it exploded, the star expelled the lobes of cool gas (red). As the material from the explosion crashes into the lobes, it heats the gas in a shock front (green, blue and yellow) and pushes it backward. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss) |
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Artist's Concept: A close-up of SN 2006gy (Labeled)
This artist's illustration shows what the brightest supernova ever recorded, known as SN 2006gy, may have looked like. The fireworks-like material (white) shows the explosive death of an extremely massive star. Before it exploded, the star expelled the lobes of cool gas (red). As the material from the explosion crashes into the lobes, it heats the gas in a shock front (green, blue and yellow) and pushes it backward. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss) |
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Illustration of Stellar Explosion of SN 2006gy
This illustration explains the process that astronomers think triggered the explosion in SN 2006gy. When a star is very massive, its core can produce so much gamma-ray light that some of the energy from the radiation is converted into particle and anti-particle pairs. The resulting drop in energy causes the star to collapse under its own huge gravity. After this violent collapse, runaway thermonuclear reactions (not shown here) ensue and the star explodes, spewing the remains into space. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss) |
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A New Line of Stellar Evolution
This graphic gives a summary of our best current understanding of the evolution of stars, showing their birth, middle age and eventual demise. The lowest mass stars are shown at the bottom and the highest mass stars at the top. The very top line is a new addition, compelled by the detection of SN 2006gy, that describes the evolution of the most massive stars in the universe. Observational evidence for the special type of explosion shown here - which is incredibly bright and obliterates the star rather than producing a black hole - was lacking until SN 2006gy was found. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss) |
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Blue Supergiant Star
Massive blue supergiant stars end their lives with a supernova explosion. See the animation! (Illustration: NASA/CXC/D.Berry & A.Hobart) |
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Blue Supergiant Wind
Blue Supergiant Wind. Before a massive star explodes, it ejects a shell of matter in a blue supergiant wind. See the animation! (Illustration: NASA/CXC/D.Berry & A.Hobart) |
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Supernova Explosion
When a star explodes it can shine with the brilliance of a billion suns. See the animation! (Illustration: NASA/CXC/D.Berry & A.Hobart) |
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Pre-Supernova Star
As it nears the end of its evolution, heavy elements produced by nuclear fusion inside the star are concentrated toward the center of the star. (Illustrations: NASA/CXC/S. Lee)
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Relative Abundance
The pie-chart on the left shows the average abundance by weight of the elements for the sun, which is thought to be close to the average for the universe as a whole. The pie chart on the right shows the abundance by weight of elements in humans. (Illustration: NASA/CXC / T. Truong) |
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Birth of a Neutron Star and Supernova Remnant
At the end of its evolution, the central core of a massive star collapses to form a neutron star. This collapse releases a tremendous amounts of energy that powers a supernova explosion. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/S. Lee) |
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