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stars generate their lights and energy by themselves from a process called Nuclear fussion,they use gasses like hydrogen as fuels to run this process.As they become older they begin to run out of their natural fuels,and begin to use heavier elements as its nuclear fuel.Eventually,iron forms in the core,preventing further fussion reaction.As the star shutsdown,it collapse in on itself and blows itself apart as a supernova.A supernova ends a stars life span.

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14y ago
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12y ago

There are a several different types of "explosions" a star could undergo. I'm only going to consider one of the "simpler" cases, that of a large star (about ten times as massive as the Sun or greater).

The star fuses ("burns") hydrogen into helium for most of its life. However, eventually the core runs out of hydrogen. When that happens, the core begins to cool since fusion is no longer going on, and it starts to contract due to gravitational collapse. This compression heats the core even hotter than it was while hydrogen was fusing, and eventually it reaches temperature and pressure conditions where helium starts to fuse into carbon through the triple-alpha process.

Pretty soon (on a cosmologic scale) the helium is exhausted too, and the process repeats. This time it's carbon that starts to fuse. The process repeats several more times, each a little faster than the last, with neon, oxygen, and silicon. However, the product of the silicon fusion process is an unstable isotope of nickel that fairly quickly decays into iron, and iron and nickel are the elements with the highest binding energy per nucleon... that means you can't get energy from fusing them any longer; the fusion process for iron or nickel actually requires that you put energy in to the system.

The core collapses rapidly. The collapse sends a shock wave outward which blows off the outer layers of the star.

This explosion is called a supernova.

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12y ago

Stars of large mass "explode" or die in an event called a supernova. this is after the star forms a red giant and starts running out of hydrogen fuel. a star uses nuclear fusion to keep it going, and it mainly uses hydrogen. after it has fused all of its hydrogen into helium, it becomes more dense and hotter, letting it fuse helium together into heiver elements until eventualy the star has fused everything into iorn or hevy elements that use more energy to make then they give off. the star expands and then suddenly colapses and bounces back a good amount of matter. the rest can colapse further and form a black hole. the bounce back is what is called a supernova.

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13y ago

Stars produce heat when internal pressure forces elements to combine and create heat. This heat keeps the elements in the stars from all coming together at once. When all the elements that can come together have come together the inside of the star starts cooling down. Then the internal pressure starts pushing the elements together. This is called gravitational collapse. This gravitational collapse gives off a tremendous amount of energy. That makes the outside of the star explode.

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12y ago

It depends on the star mass.

Our sun will explode into a white dwarf: a very dense ball. A match box there would weight as much as a elephant on Earth.

A much bigger star will blow into a neutron star, much denser star than a white dwarf. If the core has more than 3 solar masses, it will blow into a black hole.

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12y ago

Stars do not actually burn in a chemical sense.

Stars "burn" their energy through a process called nuclear Fusion.

This is the process where the core temperature of a star increases to become hot enough to fuse atoms together, making other heavier elements.

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13y ago

In the sense that everyone understands "burning", stars don't 'burn' at all.

It was once calculated that if the sun were made of solid coal, and the coal burned

at the rate it would need to in order to produce the amount of power that the sun

pours out, then that much coal would last less than 300 years. But the sun has been

shining for billions of years, and it's thought to have several billion more left to go.

The energy that pours out of the sun comes from the process of "nuclear fusion" of

hydrogen deep in its core. That's the same process that causes the 'bang' when a

hydrogen bomb explodes. But in the stars, it goes on continuously, and in the sun,

it's been doing that for billions of years.

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9y ago

Stars have a lifespan that revolves around the amount of hydrogen in the star's core. When the star has reached the end of its life cycle it will expand then gradually shrink, or it will expand and explode.

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13y ago

Stars are not technically "burning" but are undergoing Nuclear Fusion. This is the process of forming a larger element from two or more separate smaller elements. In the case of our Sun, the simplest form of Fusion is occurring, as hydrogen atoms are combining to create helium.

In a fusion reaction, the combined mass of the two hydrogen atoms does not equal the resulting mass of the created helium atom. This "missing mass" or mass deficit has been released as energy, this is why the Sun is bright and hot. Millions of fusion reactions are taking place simultaneously, releasing energy that can be described with the infamous equation; E=mc2 where Eis the energy released and m is the mass deficit.

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15y ago

Stars burn because they are so massive that the gravity causes nuclear fusion in their core. That is, it literally squeezes (mostly hydrogen) atoms together until they fuse into each other, forming heavier elements. That is where all the heavier elements come from, and why Carl Sagan said we (our bodies) are made from "star stuff". The atoms in our bodies were actually forged, long ago, in a star that ultimately exploded.

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Continue Learning about Natural Sciences

What are leftover materials from a huge star explosion?

supernova remnants


What does supernova mean for kids?

A huge explosion from a dying star.


When a stars core collapses does a giant explosion happen?

Yes, if the star is massive enough when the core collapses a supernova explosion happens.


How does a star turns into a neutron star?

A star 8 time the mass of the Sun turns into a neutron star when it run out of fuel, become a supergiant, and undergo supernova explosion. After the explosion, a core remains. If the core is less than 3 Solar masses, it becomes a neutron star, or else it becomes a black hole.


What determines the pattern of a firework explosion?

The arrangement of star pellets inside the shell.

Related questions

What effect will a nova have on a star?

It will destroy it in a cataclysmic explosion.


What is it called when a star becomes brighter as a result of a sudden explosion?

Once a star explodes, it's no longer a star. The explosion itself is referred to as a "Super Nova."


What is an explosion seen when a white dwarf captures H from a companion star?

A nova is an explosion seen when a white dwarf star captues H from a companion star.


How does a star work?

an active explosion:)


What is star explosion calles?

A supernova.


What star is Explosion created by a rapidly collapsing star?

Super nova


What is a star explosion which increases the star's luminosity to 1000 times that of nova?

A supernova.


What is the name of an explosion of a star?

a super novaA supernova.


What term is applied to stars that explode?

Term used for an exploding star is 'supernova' nova means explosion and supernova means a super explosion of a very big thing such as star.


What is a gigantigc explosion of a star millions or billions of times brighter than the star was?

A nova or supernova.


What are ways a star can die?

The only way then can die is by an explosion.


Is Big bang theory and explosion of star theory the same?

No.