Stars are born every single day throughout the Cosmos, and we’re tempted to believe that there’s not anything bad going on there. Who knows what wonderful forms of life could the planets that revolve around those stars host one day. But in reality, the aspect is quite different.
A lot of times, there has to be a balance in the Universe for things to work well. According to a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a new study reveals that galaxies can pollute the Universe.
Supernovae enter the cosmic scene
Dr. Alex Cameron from the University of Oxford declared as quoted by Phys.org:
We found there is a very clear structure to how the gases enter and exit,
Imagine the galaxy is a spinning frisbee. The gas enters relatively unpolluted from the Cosmos outside, around the perimeter, and then condenses to form new stars. When those stars later explode, they push out other gas—now containing these other elements—through the top and bottom.
Oddly enough, it’s generally accepted by astronomers that supernovae are also responsible for creating heavy chemical elements, and some of them even exist in the structure of Earth. The tremendous temperatures inside supernovae are believed to act as the right “cosmic soup” for creating elements heavier than iron, such as gold, uranium, and more.
A supernova occurs during the last stages of the evolution of a massive star or when a white dwarf gets triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. Supernovae are also considered neutrino factories and act as powerful particle accelerators. Ultimately, after the supernova state, a star can become a black hole, meaning a cosmic object that is far more puzzling for scientists.
Nobody knows for sure the exact number of stars in the Universe. That’s also logical, considering that astronomers are only capable of seeing the observable Universe. However, they estimate that each galaxy contains an average of 100 billion stars.
