LMR-052 · Stars
Supernova
One dying star outshining its entire galaxy of 100 billion siblings.
§ A first look
§ Depths
Six ways into the same idea — from bedtime story to chalkboard. No order required.
L1 · Crayon
Told like a bedtime story.
For a curious 10-year-old. No jargon. Just a picture in your head.
Some stars are way, way bigger than our Sun. When one of those giants finally runs out of fuel, it does not go quietly into the night. It collapses inward in a fraction of a second, and then its outside is blasted off in the biggest, brightest explosion the universe knows how to make. For a few weeks, that one exploding star shines brighter than every other star in its galaxy combined — and there are hundreds of billions of stars in a galaxy. It's called a supernova, and it scatters fresh atoms into space — the same kind of atoms that, much later, end up in planets and breakfasts and you.
§ Strange but true
- 01A single supernova briefly outshines its entire galaxy of 100 billion stars.
- 02When one goes off, 99% of its energy leaves as neutrinos — ghosts that pass right through the planet you're standing on.
- 03Every supernova seeds the next generation of stars, planets, and bodies. You are walking residue.
§ From the field journal
Supernova
"One dying star outshining its entire galaxy of 100 billion siblings."
— observed, sketched, not yet fully understood.
§ Nearby