Explore
Alan the Alien says: Did you know that you are made out of stars? All the atoms that make your body were made when a star exploded millions of years ago!
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Nurseries are not just play areas for toddlers they are also be places where Stars are formed. Stellar nurseries are bright, colourful swirly clouds where a ginormous number of hydrogen atoms clump together. The huge force causes a tremendous amount of gravity. Which is so intense that if you were near by it would suck you in.That is really strong!
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As more and more of these atoms are forced together the gravity gets stronger and stronger, pulling even more hydrogen into a really tight ball. This makes the ball super hot, more than 75 thousand times hotter than a volcano! This causes a massive explosion to happen blasting loads of gases into space. The star is born.
The Supernova becomes... A NEUTRON STAR. This is so dense that a teaspoon full weighs more than Mount Everest!
OR if it’s really really big... A BLACK HOLE. This huge hole in space sucks everything into it even light! If you were to enter a black hole you would be travelling so fast that your feet and body would be stretched really thin like spaghetti!
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When the Red Supergiant grows too big, it bursts in a huge, bright explosion called a Supernova. This single explosion releases more energy in a few minutes than our sun will in billions of years. BOOM!
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This huge fiery ball is now three times larger than our sun. It will then burn bright until it has run out of fuel. For giant stars this takes a few million years - the bigger they are the shorter they live! When the star’s fuel begins to burn out the star expands and forms a red supergiant.
SUPERNOVA
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