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Hypernovae: the most powerful explosions in the universe
You've all heard of supernovae. If a supernova happened within a hundred light years, all the life on earth would likely be wiped out. Supernovae occur when a supergiant star explodes or a white dwarf disintegrates.
However, there's something much more powerful and much rarer than supernovae called hypernovae.
Hypernovae happen when a hypergiant star explodes - a hypernova within several thousand light years would wipe out most if not all life on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernova
However, there's something much more powerful and much rarer than supernovae called hypernovae.
Hypernovae happen when a hypergiant star explodes - a hypernova within several thousand light years would wipe out most if not all life on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernova
Hypergiant stars are the most massive and luminous stars known. Hypergiant stars comprise about 100-150 solar masses worth of material, approaching the Eddington limit, a theoretical upper limit of stellar mass, after which the star begins throwing off huge amounts of material due to its great radiation. However, there are some hypergiant stars with around 100 solar masses that are thought to have once weighed 200-250 solar masses, challenging current theories of star formation. Hypergiants may be thousands up to 40 million times more luminous than our Sun.
Because hypergiants are so massive, their cores are extremely hot and pressurized, leading to rapid nuclear fusion of hydrogen, helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, and eventually silicon. As silicon fuses to iron the core, a process that only takes a couple weeks, the star can extract no more energy from nuclear fusion (the fusion of iron requiring even greater temperature) and a supernova occurs when the star collapses and then "bounces back" outwards.
Because hypergiants are so massive, their cores are extremely hot and pressurized, leading to rapid nuclear fusion of hydrogen, helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, and eventually silicon. As silicon fuses to iron the core, a process that only takes a couple weeks, the star can extract no more energy from nuclear fusion (the fusion of iron requiring even greater temperature) and a supernova occurs when the star collapses and then "bounces back" outwards.
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