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Glossary term: Supernova

Description: Una supernova es una explosión estelar de gran magnitud. Las supernovas se convierten brevemente en, con diferencia, el objeto más luminoso de su galaxia antes de perder intensidad a lo largo de unos pocos años. Hay dos vías principales que conducen a las supernovas. La primera (Tipo Ia) implica una enana blanca que acumula materia de una estrella compañera binaria. Una vez que la enana blanca se desestabiliza, ya sea al alcanzar una masa superior a 1.4 masas solares (lo que se conoce como el límite de Chandrasekhar) o al acumular suficiente helio en su superficie, explota sin dejar ningún remanente. La otra vía principal que da lugar a una supernova (Tipo II) es la evolución de una estrella con una masa superior a ocho masas solares. Al final de la evolución de dicha estrella, esta explota, dando lugar a una estrella de neutrones o (en el caso de las estrellas más masivas) a un agujero negro de masa estelar.

Las supernovas son la fuente de muchos de los elementos químicos, especialmente los más pesados que el magnesio.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

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A neutron star appears as a blue spot surrounded by shells of material which appear as red and green rings

Death of a massive star

Caption: A multi-wavelength image taken with telescopes on the Earth and in space of a neutron star within our neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. A neutron star (seen here as the blue spot surrounded by a red ring) is the final product of gravitational collapse, compression and explosion of a massive star, left embedded in its supernova remnant (in green).
Credit: ESO/NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/F. Vogt et al. credit link

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Reconocimiento 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0) icons


An irregular blue bubble with mottled red inside it on a field of background stars

Remnant of SN 1006

Caption: This image shows the remnant of the supernova SN 1006. This was probably the result of a white dwarf that accreted so much material from a binary companion star that the white dwarf exploded (this is called a Type 1a supernova by astronomers). This explosion happened several thousand years ago, however it took time for the light from this event to reach Earth, only arriving in the year 1006. This bright explosion was noticed by observers across the Earth and its appearance was noted in the records of many different societies. Here we see the effect that supernova has had on its surroundings in the galaxy. The force of the explosion has blown a huge bubble in the surrounding interstellar gas with a hot shockwave at its edge. The image appears to be a simple color picture but it actually represents light far beyond what our eye can see. The blue is X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the yellow and orange are data from optical telescopes and the red is detections in radio waves from the Very Large Array and the Green Bank Telescope. The bright blue of the outer shell shows the gas there is very hot and that the explosion produced energetic shock waves.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/G.Cassam-Chenai, Hughes et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/GBT/VLA/Dyer, Maddalena & Cornwell; Optical: Middlebury College/F.Winkler, NOAO/AURA/NSF/CTIO Schmidt & DSS credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons

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