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High Mass Stars: Crash Course Astronomy #31
Massive stars fuse heavier elements in their cores than lower mass stars. This leads to the creation of heavier elements up to iron. Iron robs critical energy from the core, causing it to collapse. The shock wave, together with a huge swarm of neutrinos, blast through the star’s outer layers, causing it to explode. The resulting supernova creates even more heavy elements, scattering them through space. Also, happily, we’re in no danger from a nearby supernova.
Crash Course Astronomy Poster:
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Table of Contents
Massive Stars Fuse Heavier Elements Up To Iron 1:15
Iron Uses High Amounts of Energy, Thus Making Stars Collapse 3:58
The Resulting Supernova Creates Even Heavier Elements 10:00
Relax, Something Else Will Kill You 9:04
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PHOTOS/VIDEOS
Blowing Bubbles [credit: NASA/CXC/April Jubett]
The Sizes of Stars [credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser]
Red giants [credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Alpha Orionis [credit: A. Dupree (CfA), NASA, ESA]
Sun and VY Canis Majoris [credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Witch Head Nebula and Rigel [credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo]
Layers of a massive star [credit: Wikimedia Commons]
NASA’s Swift Reveals New Phenomenon in a Neutron Star [credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center]
What is a black hole? [credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss]
The Death of Stars [credit: ESA/Hubble]
Giant Mosaic of the Crab Nebula [credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester (Arizona State University)]
Hubble and Chandra spot a celestial bauble [credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Hughes]
Vela Supernova Remnant [credit: Marco Lorenzi]
Spica [credit: Phil Plait]
Cassiopeia A [credit: Oliver Krause (Steward Observatory) George H. Rieke (Steward Observatory) Stephan M. Birkmann (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie) Emeric Le Floc’h (Steward Observatory) Karl D. Gordon (Steward Observatory) Eiichi Egami (Steward Observatory) John Bieging (Steward Observatory) John P. Hughes (Rutgers University) Erick Young (Steward Observatory) Joannah L. Hinz (Steward Observatory) Sascha P. Quanz (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie) Dean C. Hines (Space Science Institute)]
Sloshing Supernova [credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Video and images courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech]
Star Burst [credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Video courtesy of ESA/Hubble/L. Calcada]