AS102 Study Guide - Final Guide: Big Bang, Neutrino
Document Summary
Imagine such an object the mass of our. Sun compressed into a sphere about the size of a small town! Such a collapse, which takes place in just a flash of a second, releases a tremendous amount of energy into the surrounding space an instantaneous explosion known as a supernova, leaving behind a neutron star. A supernova generates more light than 10 billion suns (a fantastic luminosity) lasting for several days or even several months with a visibility that can be seen with the naked eye throughout large portions of the galaxy. Eventually it diminishes in intensity (at least as far as being visible to the naked eye) but spreading the newly fused atoms into interstellar space to be ultimately incorporated into a new generation of stars. Because high-mass stars live fast and die young and because many have lived and died since the big bang 15 billion years ago, the universe is growing in the quantity of heavier elements.
