Nova And Supernova

Attention is focused on the upcoming solar eclipse but something far more important is also going on in space. A nova is scheduled to take place that will be visible from earth. Nova and supernova are so important because every atom in your body was once part of a star that exploded in a supernova. I define a nova as a blasting away of the star's outer layers while a supernova is the star exploding from the center.

Probably no two stars are exactly alike and each nova and supernova has it's own dynamics. Nova and supernova are usually unpredictable but there are some repeating nova, under special circumstances. A white dwarf is the core of a former star that has blasted away the outer layers in previous nova, but does not have enough mass to explode in a supernova.

Our sun is a solitary star but probably the majority of stars exist as part of a multi-star system. If an extremely dense white dwarf is in an orbit with another star it's gravity may pull in matter from the other star. The added mass causes fusion to reignite in the white dwarf, and the energy released upsets the equilibrium of the white dwarf, blasting away the new outer layers in a nova. If the flow of matter from the other star is steady then the resulting nova might be fairly predictable.

The bad news is that a far-distant nova won't be as visible and isn't as predictable as the eclipse. The good news is that it will last for a while, unlike the eclipse which lasts only a few minutes. 

Although the nova won't be brilliant it will be fairly easy to find. There are two bright summer stars that I have referred to here before, Arcturus and Vega. As a youth outside in the summer I used to gauge the passage of summer by these two stars. When Arcturus is directly overhead in the early evening it means that summer is here. As the summer goes by Arcturus gets lower in the western sky and Vega appears overhead in the early evening. But when Vega got lower in the western sky I knew that summer was almost over and it would soon be time to go back to school.

The nova will be about halfway between Arcturus and Vega, which should make it easier to find.

Let's have a look at what nova and supernova are all about and how important they are.

THE CRAB NEBULA AND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

There was a great show in the sky in the year 1054. It was a brilliant exploding star. It was so bright that it was easily visible during the day and lasted for about two years. We see the remnants of it today, the gas and dust that was thrown out into space, as the Crab Nebula.

I was greatly surprised to find that it had never been pointed out that the brilliant supernova that resulted in this most famous of nebula took place at exactly the same time as the momentous split in the church, in July 1054. It thus appears to have been a warning from God because the east-west divide ever since then, including the war in Ukraine, resulted from the split between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches that occurred at exactly the time that this brilliant explosion in the sky happened.

Image from Wikipedia article "Crab Nebula".

What I want to point out today is just how relevant it is in another way. The Crab Nebula, as depicted in this famous photo of it, must be a model of how our own Solar System formed as described in the compound posting on this blog, "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple", March 2017.

To begin with, why is it called "The Crab Nebula"? It is because it's shape resembles the shell of a crab. But we know the Crab Nebula to consist of the debris thrown outward by the explosion of a large star in a supernova. The explosion took place in the year 1054, less than a thousand years ago.

But stars are inevitably spherical in form. If a star explodes in a supernova then shouldn't the resulting cloud of debris also be spherical in form? Why would it be shaped like the shell of a crab?

To understand what shaped the Crab Nebula there is a factor that must be taken into account. That factor was that the star was rotating when it exploded. The centrifugal force of the rotation would have added to the outward force of the explosion and thrown debris further outward along the star's equatorial plane than it was along it's polar axis.

This is why the nebula is shaped like the shell of a crab, rather than like a sphere. The long axis of the Crab Nebula, from lower left to upper right in the photo, was the rotational plane of the star that exploded in the supernova. This is why debris was thrown further outward. The short axis of the Crab Nebula, from upper left to lower right in the photo, was the polar or rotational axis of the star that exploded. 

The red line in the following image shows what must have been the equatorial plane of the star that exploded to form the Crab Nebula. The centrifugal force of rotation added to the momentum of the supernova explosion so that debris was thrown further. The two red dots show the poles of the former star.

Image from Wikipedia article "Crab Nebula".

We know that our own Solar System must have formed in a scenario very similar to that of the Crab Nebula. A large star exploded in a supernova and some of the debris fell back together by gravity to form the sun and planets. We know for certain that the sun is such a second-generation star because it contains heavy elements that are beyond it's current stage in the fusion process.

Iron is so abundant in the inner Solar System, it is the most abundant element on earth by mass, because it is as far as the ordinary fusion process goes in stars. It was scattered across space when the previous star exploded in the supernova. Elements heavier than iron are fused together only during the release of energy while the supernova is actually taking place. This is why iron, and elements lighter than it, are exponentially more common than elements heavier than iron.

But if it was mostly the polar regions of the exploded star that fell back together by gravity to form the sun and planets, and this falling back together formed the new rotational plane, this means that the sun's rotational plane, and the orbital plane of the planets, must be perpendicular to the rotational plane of the former star that exploded.

With the matter along the former star's rotational plane being blasted permanently away into space, because the centrifugal force of the star's rotation was added to it, we know that it was the mass in the star's two polar regions that fell back together to form the sun, and the sun is very much smaller than this previous star.

Many have suspected that the sun might once have had a companion star, and this scenario explains it simply. One of the former star's polar regions fell back together to form the sun, and the other to form the sun's former companion star, which has since been separated away by outside gravitational forces.

This then explains the sun's puzzling and erratic magnetism. The sun has sometimes been observed to have a south, but not a north, magnetic pole. This is because the former star that exploded was a magnet, but has never entirely come back together magnetically. The sun can host one of it's magnetic poles and the sun's former companion star the other.

A large star eventually explodes in a supernova due to a change in it's original equilibrium due to the successive fusion process. But the star may have earlier underwent one or more nova in an effort to regain stability, before finally exploding from the center. A nova is a blasting away of the star's outer layers in an effort to decrease the gravitational pressure driving the fusion process at the center.

These outer layers, which were blasted out into space by one or more nova before the star finally exploded from the center as a supernova, consist of light atoms that ended up forming molecules like water, salt, ammonia and, methane. The energy released by the nova bound these atoms into molecules in the same way that the much greater energy released by a supernova fused atoms together into the elements heavier than iron, which is as far as the ordinary fusion process goes.

These lighter molecules formed comets, as well as the ammonia and methane of the outer planets. The two distinct areas of comets, the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, almost certainly formed by two separate nova.

Water on earth came from comets. Have you ever noticed that all of the salt on earth is either associated with water or left behind by water? That is because the two were formed together and came to earth together.

But how can we explain why the orbits of comets tend to be extremely eccentric and elongated? The answer is actually simple. The comets started in orbit around the previous star, before it exploded as a supernova. But after the star exploded, only a fraction of it's mass was left as the sun. This meant that the orbital energy of the comets, which is proportional to orbital altitude, had to decrease but the original information of their orbitals had to remain.

What happened is that the original orbits of the comets around the previous star "shrank" to become the extremely eccentric and elongated comet orbits around the sun that we see today.

The famous photo of the Crab Nebula should be an image of the development of our own Solar System. It must have looked just about like this after the previous star exploded but before some of the material settled back by gravity to form the sun and planets. The matter furthest from the center continued on into space.

I consider this previous star that exploded as very interesting because it is the only star that we can actually access. Also, the tremendous energy of it's supernova explosion is still with us today, in ways such as tidal and nuclear energy. 

THE MYSTERY OF BETELGEUSE 

Betelgeuse is the bright star that makes up the right shoulder of the constellation Orion, the Hunter. In 2019 Betelgeuse mystified scientists by going dim. It was suggested that it was about to explode in a supernova. Now it is known what happened. The star actually blasted off some of it's outer layers. As the resulting matter cooled it formed a dust cloud around the star that dimmed it's light. The star is believed to be headed for a supernova explosion, but probably not just yet.

It has drawn attention by growing brighter and it's pulsation rate has increased. Pulsation means alternating between brighter and dimmer. It is caused by the rotation of the star, and the fact that the two sides of the star are not quite equal in brightness.

But this is also explainable by the blasting away of the outer layer in the nova, the debris of which formed the dust cloud. The outermost layer was actually hindering the light and electromagnetic radiation being emitted from the center of the star, because that is the only region where fusion takes place. Just as a spinning ice skater will spin faster if they draw their arms in so Betelgeuse is spinning faster now that it has shed it's outermost layer because the ratio of angular momentum to radius is greater.

This is important to us, even though Betelgeuse is about 550 light years away, because our sun is a second-generation star. We know that a star preceded the sun that exploded in a supernova. Some of the matter that was ejected into space fell back together by mutual gravity to form the present sun and Solar System. This preceding star must have been much larger than the sun because only the largest stars will explode in a supernova.

A star is an equilibrium between the inward force of the gravity of it's mass and the outward force of the energy released by the nuclear fusion taking place in it's core. As successively heavier elements are fused in the core this equilibrium is upset, and the star may begin to swell. The outer layers of the star may be blasted away in a nova and, if this doesn't restore equilibrium, the entire star may explode from the center in a supernova.

My theory is that the star which preceded the sun underwent three nova before finally exploding from the center as a supernova. A nova is nowhere near as powerful as a supernova but the energy released can fuse the light atoms in the outer layers of the star into light molecules such as water, methane and, ammonia. 

The first nova produced the distant comets of our Solar System, known as the Oort Cloud. The second nova produced the nearer comets known as the Kuiper Belt. The third nova produced the bulk of the mass of the four outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and, Neptune. Then the supernova threw out the heavier elements from the center of the preceding star that formed the inner planets and the cores of the outer planets. The lighter liquid and gaseous layers of the outer planets was from the third nova.

Why I see what is happening to Betelgeuse as being so important to us is that it about where the star that preceded the sun was at some point before it exploded in the supernova. Like Betelgeuse we know that star was much larger than the sun. The blasting off of outer layers of Betelgeuse, that was observed in 2019, must have been very much like one of the nova that preceded the supernova of the previous star.

I see this situation involving Betelgeuse as giving credence to the scenario that I set forth, about how our Solar System came to be in the book-length compound posting on this blog, "The Configuration of The Solar System Made Really Simple" March 2017.

This is especially important now that the James Webb Space Telescope can gather much more information about exoplanets. The situation on these distant planets may not be at all the same as in our Solar System, it all depends on how the supernova that must have formed the planets played out, although the basic laws of physics will be the same.

THE WANNABE STAR OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 

Jupiter is by far the largest planet of our Solar System. It has more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined. In fact, Jupiter is built much like a star. It has plenty of hydrogen, for the initial stage of fusion like the sun is in now, and is of about the same density as the sun.

The reason that Jupiter isn't a star is that, despite it's great mass relative to the planets, it doesn't have enough mass to ignite as a star. A star forms when enough matter comes together in space by it's mutual gravity to overcome the electron repulsion between atoms that keeps atoms from merging into each other.

The like charges of the outer electrons in each atom, both negatively-charged, mutually repel to keep the atoms separate. Smaller atoms, starting with hydrogen, are crunched together into larger atoms in the center of the star. The new heavier atoms have less overall energy than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to form them. The excess energy is released as radiation and that is why stars shine.

There is an intermediate stage between a planet and a star. The easiest element to fuse is deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with one neutron. A brown dwarf is an object that only has enough mass to fuse deuterium, two atoms of it would fuse into an atom of helium, but does not have enough mass to fuse the helium.

But why would such a massive planet form, that was built very much like a star, but with not enough mass to be a star? That brings us to some interesting questions.

Let's start with how our Solar System formed. We know that a very large star exploded in a supernova, which happens to only the largest stars. Some of the matter that was scattered across space by the explosion fell back together by gravity to form the sun and the planets. Such explosive stars happen because as the star ages and fuses atoms of successively heavier elements together, this increases the energy per time that is released.

Since a star is an equilibrium between the inward mutual gravity of it's mass and the outward force of the energy released by fusion in the star's core, this upsets the equilibrium in favor of the outward energy. 

The star may try to regain the equilibrium by blasting off some of it's outer layers with the outward energy from the fusion. This would reduce the gravitational pressure on the star's core and slow the rate of fusion. This only happens in the largest stars, where the tremendous mutual gravity of the mass prevents the star from simply swelling to regain equilibrium. A smaller star, like the sun, will swell into a "red giant" when it reaches this stage, instead of blasting off it's outer layers.

If the removal of the outer layers of the star does not restore equilibrium, as successively-heavier elements are fused at it's core so that more energy per time continues to be released, the entire star may explode from the center, scattering it's matter across space. 

I refer to the blasting away of outer layers of the star as a nova, and the explosion of the star from the center as a supernova. Such a supernova resulted in our Solar System as some of the matter from the previous star fell back together by gravity to form the sun and planets. Iron is so plentiful in the inner Solar System because the ordinary fusion process only goes as far as iron.

I am certain that the previous star, which exploded in a supernova to form the present sun and planets, underwent at least one nova, a blasting away of it's outer layers, before exploding as a supernova. I actually believe that it most likely underwent three nova.

The outer layers of the previous star would naturally contain light atoms. The energy released by the nova welded atoms together into light molecules, such as water, salt, diatomic hydrogen and oxygen, methane and, ammonia. This "welding together" of light atoms by the energy released in the nova is in the same principle as elements heavier than iron being formed from smaller atoms being crunched together only during the tremendous release of energy during a supernova.

The first nova of the previous star, with the highest starting point relative to successive nova, resulted in the distant comets of the Oort Cloud. The second nova resulted in the nearer comets of the Kuiper Belt. The third nova resulted in the molecular gases, particularly methane and ammonia, that compose much of the outer planets of our Solar System.

Finally the star exploded from the center in a supernova, much of the material fell back together by gravity to form the sun and the heavy rocky and metallic material in the planets. We know that the sun is such a second-generation star because it contains heavy elements that are beyond it's current stage in the fusion process.

The majority of stars exist in pairs or groups. What looks to us like a single star may actually be a system of multiple stars. We know that solar systems, many of which exist around other stars, are formed only from a supernova. An interesting question, which I have never seen before, is whether more than one star can form from a supernova, the explosion of one star.

It seems to me that we tend to presume the way our Solar System came together from a supernova must be pretty much the way other solar systems came together also. But what if our previous star had exploded as a supernova without any nova preceding it? There would be no water, which came to earth by comet, or salt which I believe must have come with it because salt on earth is always either in water or where water has been. 

The two atoms of diatomic hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere were also put together with energy released during a nova. When we use hydrogen as fuel the two atoms are split so that it releases this energy. So the energy released by a nova joins atoms together into molecules, but the much greater energy released by a supernova crunches atoms together into entirely new, larger, atoms.

It would also mean that the supernova would have been more powerful. If the supernova had been more powerful more light material, particularly hydrogen, would have been thrown further outward. 

That brings us back to the giant planet Jupiter. It is built so much like a star but doesn't have enough mass to ignite as a star. Maybe Jupiter was meant to be a star but the fact that there were nova in the previous star weakened the supernova in which the star finally exploded. 

If not for these nova, if there had only been a supernova, Jupiter might well have gained enough mass to ignite as a star and our sun would be part of a dual star system. The earth might still be there, although there would be no water or atmosphere if there had been no nova. This means that more than one star can indeed form from the same supernova.

I think we tend to presume that the formation of other solar systems must have been pretty much like our system, but that may not be the case.

THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF SUPERNOVA IN EXOPLANETS 

There has been a lot in the news lately about how the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to discover many more exoplanets, and then examine them much more closely than was ever possible before. These are planets in other solar systems.

It seems to be taken for granted by some that there will automatically be water wherever a solar system forms. But this is not necessarily the case. It all depends on the supernova that formed the solar system.

All solar systems, meaning planets in orbit around a star, form because of the explosion of a star in a supernova. A star forms when enough matter comes together by gravity to overcome the electron repulsion that keeps atoms apart. Smaller atoms are crunched together into larger ones. The new larger atom has less overall internal energy than the smaller atoms which were crunched together to form it. This leftover energy is released as radiation and is why stars shine.

The star is an equilibrium between the inward force of gravity and the outward pressure of this energy released by fusion. As time goes on successively larger atoms are fused together in the center of the star. This upsets the equilibrium with more outward pressure.

The new imbalance in the equilibrium may cause the star to blast off it's outer layers, which would reduce the gravitational pressure driving fusion and thus restore the original equilibrium, or even to explode altogether from the center. This occurs only in the largest stars, with the greatest inward gravitational pressure. I define a nova as a blasting off of the outer layers of the star and a supernova as the star exploding from the center.

Our Solar System formed when a large star exploded in a supernova. Some of it's matter fell back together by gravity to form our sun and planets, but the sun is nowhere near as large as the previous star that exploded. We know that the sun is such a second-generation star because it contains heavy elements that are beyond it's current stage in the fusion process.

All energy on earth that is not solar or nuclear fusion came from this exploded star. Tidal energy is from the energy of the mass that was thrown outward by the supernova and coalesced by gravity to form the planets and moon. Nuclear fission energy comes from the heavy unstable elements that were put together from lighter atoms by the energy released by the supernova, this applies to nuclear fission and the radioactive decay that produces heat inside the earth but not to fusion energy generated on earth. 

Hydrogen on earth is usually diatomic, two atoms bonded together, when we burn hydrogen as fuel we are releasing the energy of that bond that was put together by a nova from the previous star that ultimately exploded in a supernova. Furthermore this previous star is so important to us because every atom in our bodies was once part of it.

Ordinary fusion of atoms in stars only goes as far as iron, because it takes more energy to break an iron atom apart than is released when it fuses. This is known as the S-process of fusion, for "slow". There is also the R-process, for "rapid".

Fusion by the R-process only takes place during the brief time that the star is actually exploding in the supernova, by the tremendous energy being released. The R-process is how all elements heavier than iron form. This is why iron and lighter elements are exponentially more common than the heavier elements. Some of the R-process elements are less-than-stable and gradually give off particles or radiation in order to reach a more stable condition. These emissions are known as radioactivity.

My theory is that the previous star underwent three nova, blasting off of the outer layers, before exploding from the center as a supernova. But I am absolutely certain that it underwent at least one nova.

A nova is a much-less powerful explosion than a supernova. A supernova releases such energy that it actually fuses atoms together into heavy elements that wouldn't have formed otherwise. A nova, in contrast, fuses the lighter atoms that are naturally found in a star's outer layers into molecules. This is how common light molecules like water, ammonia, methane and, diatomic hydrogen form.

This is why I conclude that there were three nova in the life of the previous star, before it finally exploded from the center in a supernova. Comets are formed of ices of light molecules, including water. The water on earth came from one or more comets. This explains why our Solar System has two distinct zones of comets, the far distant Oort Cloud and the nearer Kuiper Belt. The matter thrown out by the first nova would have been thrown further because it had a higher starting point. I conclude that the third nova threw the light molecules outward that formed the ammonia and methane that is so abundant in the outer planets of our Solar System.

Finally the previous star exploded from the center as a supernova. Some of the matter fell back together by gravity to form the sun. Some of the heavier rocky and metallic material remained in orbit around the sun. This is what forms the inner planets and the cores of the outer planets.

So what about the exoplanets, in orbits around distant stars, that are being discovered? We know that the only way that solar systems form, including ours, is from a large star that exploded in a supernova. But we see here that there was most likely three nova before our previous star exploded in the supernova that formed our Solar System. The supernovas that formed other solar systems may have unfolded quite differently than ours, and that is what I see as so important here.

We seem to take it for granted that there must be water in these faraway solar systems. But that may not be so. I see water molecules being put together by the energy released by a nova which preceded our previous star's supernova. What if a solar system formed by a star that just exploded in a supernova, without any preceding nova? Water would likely not exist.

Even if there were one or more nova preceding the supernova the molecules that it's energy put together from the light atoms in the outer layers of the star may not have come together at all like it did in our Solar System. In our case, large amounts of water, ammonia and, methane were formed by nova. But completely different molecules may have formed in other solar systems, even if the formation process was similar.

One thing that we can be reasonably sure of is that, if we find large planets of relatively low density, there surely was one or more nova before the supernova in the previous star of that solar system. A nova is what forms the molecules from light atoms that would produce such a low-density planet. A Neptune-like exoplanet was in the news and we can be sure that nova were necessary for it's formation, before the final supernova.

The major components of our atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen, both of which are diatomic or consisting of two atoms bonded together. Having two atoms bonded together makes the nitrogen and oxygen heavier than it would be otherwise. There is energy in this diatomic bond and it comes from one of the nova that preceded the supernova that formed our Solar System. Hydrogen is also diatomic, for the same reason, and when we burn it as fuel we are releasing the energy of that nova. Without the weight of the two atoms together the earth's gravity may not be strong enough to hold onto it and we might not have our atmosphere as we know it.

Aside from nova the necessary supernova to form a solar system may not have turned out exactly the same as the one that formed our Solar System. In our Periodic Table there are 92 naturally-occurring elements, number 92 being uranium. But there may be more or fewer elements in other solar systems. If a massive star had just exploded in a supernova, with no preceding nova, there would likely be a higher proportion of the mass in the resulting solar system in elements heavier than iron, and there might be more than 92 naturally occurring elements. 

Scientists can create a number of elements in the laboratory that are heavier than uranium and do not occur naturally in our Solar System, even if they are radioactive and may only last for a fraction of a second. As for isotopes of the elements, the possibly varying number of neutrons in the same element, each element would likely have much the same isotopes although their relative proportions may be much different.

The most important factor in how faraway solar systems may differ from ours is how the supernova that must have formed it played out, and were there nova, a blasting off of the outer layers of the star, that preceded the supernova? If the exploding star that formed our Solar System had just been a supernova, with no preceding nova, the planets would likely be rocky and metallic, like the inner planets, without the large amounts of ammonia and methane that make up most of the giant outer planets.

I concluded that salt, sodium chloride, is another light molecule that was formed by a nova in the previous star. That is why salt and water are always associated together on earth, the two arrived on earth in the same comet.

The compound posting about the entire story of how the Solar System came to be is through the following link:

https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-configuration-of-solar-system-made.html?m=0