A supernova explosion may have triggered the formation of our solar system.
A supernova occurs at the end of a massive star's life, when its core collapses and the star undergoes a catastrophic explosion. New solar systems form when a cold cloud of gas and dust (called a Nebula) collapses under its own gravity. A star forms at the center, while the leftover debris flattens into a disk that later forms into planets. Scientists believe a nearby supernova's shockwave may have been the trigger that pushed our solar system's birth cloud to collapse. In other words, one star's death may have helped kickstart another star's birth!
Written By:
Emilee Brown (B.A. Astrophysics)
References:
Image: NASA- Combined images of Kepler's supernova remnant
It takes about 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth!
Light is the fastest moving thing in the universe, traveling at roughly 300,000,000 meters/second. The Sun sits about 150 million km from Earth, so it takes sunlight around 8 minutes and 20 seconds to make the trip. That means the sunlight hitting your skin right now actually left the Sun's surface over eight minutes ago — you're always looking at a slightly "older" Sun than the one currently there.
Written By:
Emilee Brown
References:
Image: NASA- 2003 ISS View of the sun on Earth's Horizon
Stars are born, live, and die, just like humans do. While humans live on the scale of decades, a star lives for millions, billions, or even trillions of years. Counterintuitively, thebiggest, brighteststars burn through their fuel fastest and haveshorterlife spans (millions of years).Smaller, dimmerstars burn slowly and can live for much longer (billions to trillions of years). Instead of decomposing ike animals and plants do, stars transform into white dwarfs, black holes, and even explode into supernovas!
