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What Causes a Supernova Explosion?

-- Dylan | March 24, 2020

Question:

If when a star dies that the force of gravity overpowers the radiation of the star and collapses it. How can the star then explode again if gravity has won the battle with the outward pushing force?

-- Dylan

Answer:

You can find a nice description of the supernova process on the NASA Space Place. When a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel to support itself against gravity it collapses in upon itself. When this collapse happens it does so very quickly, which results in the generation of massive shock waves that cause the outer part of the star to explode. This is what we observe as a bright supernova explosion.

-- Jeff Mangum

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