Stars in their Death Throes by John Eldridge

This month’s CAA talk was entitled “Stars in their Death Throes” by John Eldridge. John went over the life span of stars and how they go nova.

He mentioned that Supernova give off enough light to be seen for about 4 to 5 months, such as supernova 1987A and supernova 2003gd in M74.

When stars are born they are hot and blue in colour and are made of helium and hydrogen. At this point other gas and dust is blown away.

The Red Supergiant then gets a carbon oxygen core and then an iron core is created, the centre is then hotter and denser than before. After this the star then collapses down to  a supernova, at which point nickel is produced. 

We were also told that Betelgeuse is actually a Red Supergiant, so think of that next time your are observing it.

The talk about Supernova was very in-depth and quite complicated for me, and I was lost at some points, but none the less a very good talk with lots of good movies of the life span of stars up to the point when they go nova.