#star exploding

[briansfancies]

Star explosion over the span of four years.

[katalogofchaos]

The star V838 Monocerotis exploding. This is 8 images taken by Hubble between 2002 and 2008 morphed into a timelapse. 

Flipping Amazing.

[imhighyourebeautiful]

[joerosewood]

Stars with at least nine solar masses of material evolve in a complex fashion.[62] In the core of the star, hydrogen is fused into helium and the thermal energy released creates an outward pressure, which maintains the core in hydrostatic equilibrium and prevents collapse.

When the core's supply of hydrogen is exhausted, this outward pressure is no longer created. The core begins to collapse, causing a rise in temperature and pressure which becomes great enough to ignite the helium and start a helium-to-carbon fusion cycle, creating sufficient outward pressure to halt the collapse. The core expands and cools slightly, with a hydrogen-fusion outer layer, and a hotter, higher pressure, helium-fusion center. (Other elements such as magnesium, sulfur and calcium are also created and in some cases burned in these further reactions.)

This process repeats several times; each time the core collapses, and the collapse is halted by the ignition of a further process involving more massive nuclei and higher temperatures and pressures. Each layer is prevented from collapse by the heat and outward pressure of the fusion process in the next layer inward; each layer also burns hotter and quicker than the previous one—the final burn of silicon to iron consumes its fuel in just a few days at most.[63] The star becomes layered like an onion, with the burning of more easily fused elements occurring in larger shells