Inertia - Science for You

Massive stars implode as Core-collapse supernovae. Now, what happens to the core? It can either end up as a neutron star or a black hole. Let's take the neutron star scenario here. The Star Died, But Left Its Angry, Spinning Ghost The core implodes, sending shock waves to the ambient medium. This forward shock compresses and heats the ambient gas, and propagates sweeping up the material. Now, as the deceleration of the shock drives back a reverse shock into the cold ejecta, heating the metal-rich gas to X-ray-emitting temperatures. But, what's there at the centre? A rapidly-spinning, highly magnetic neutron star. This neutron star, a pulsar, generates an energetic wind of particles and magnetic field. Thus, we have a nebula driven by the winds of a pulsar hosted inside a supernova remnant (SNR) - a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). Is a PWN an SNR? No, a pulsar wind nebula and a supernova remnant are not the same. Yes, a pulsar wind nebula is formed after a supernova explosion and the...

Stars are beautiful. But their explosions are even more beautiful. And the remnants of that, further more beautiful. Beautiful, beautifuller, beautifullest! When a massive star collapses, it implodes. That's its death. A core collapse supernova. These explosions are extremely luminous and can outshine an entire galaxy. But long after this catastrophic death, the legacy of the star continues. The remnants of these explosions can be seen for another tens of thousands of years; telling the lore of the star to the generations yet to live. Shaping the rest of the universe, by cosmic rays, shocks and radiations. Research proves that even distant explosions have influenced the atmosphere on Earth ( see article ).  What if the star wasn't massive? Then they end up as White Dwarfs. But these White Dwarfs may accrete more mass to it from its companion, and thus explode due to 'over-mass'.  This detonation is a Type Ia supernova.  These explosions enrich the universe with light an...

Hydrogen (he/him) sees a UV photon. He is excited. So excited that his electron jumps up two levels. Being far from home, the electron cries. So, the Hydrogen lets the electron come one level closer, still keeping a bit of the excitement. H II regions are cool. I mean, temperature-wise. It could be seven thousand to fifteen thousand kelvin.  And this depends on what's in there and what causes it. So, what causes the temperature? Photoionisation. And who causes the photoionisation? A star! A massive central star.  So, let me introduce to you, an H II region. An H II region is a region of photoionised gas surrounding a massive star. A sweet help by the star to its surrounding region. So, what really happens? There's a big star. There's gas around it. The star radiates UV rays. And what does UV do? They ionise the ambient medium. i.e., the UV photons are absorbed by the gas, and hence a spherical region is formed. This is a Str ömgren sphere. The most abundant...