• Question: what is the difference between a nova and a supernova and have you seen a star do any of those things ????

    Asked by hagan to Jen on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jen Gupta

      Jen Gupta answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I’m not an expert on this but I’ll try my best. This is basically about how stars end their lives. The fate of a star depends on how much mass it has. If a star is about the mass of our Sun, it the star collapses and forms a white dwarf. If it’s a bit bigger then it forms a neutron star. Bigger still and it collapses to a black hole. The most massive stars, over about 8 times the mass of our Sun, will collapse and then explode in a supernova. There’s more information on this NASA website: http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve/

      A nova is different to a supernova. If you have a white dwarf with another star next to it, the white dwarf will pull material onto it from its companion. Sometimes this will make the white dwarf heat up and nuclear fusion starts to happen. This nuclear fusion is unstable and causes the white dwarf to get a lot brighter for a short period of time.

      I haven’t personally seen any stars go supernova or nova. A supernova went off recently in a nearby galaxy called M51 and was discovered by some amateur astronomers which is pretty cool.

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