Review of Stellar Explosions

These flashcards cover key vocabulary terms and concepts related to stellar explosions, including nuevas, supernovae, and the processes of stellar evolution.

What’s a Nova?

A star that flares up suddenly and then slowly returns to its former luminosity.

What is a Novas luminosity increase?

A nova can increase in luminosity up to several 10,000 times. Taking weeks to months to slowly decrease to original luminosity.

The point through which matter is pulled from a companion star into an accretion disk around a white dwarf? Lagrangian point

Lagrangian point

When enough material has accumulated to bring temperatures to approximately 10 million Kelvin on the White Dwarf.

Hydrogen fusion begins, burning new materials.

Recurrent novae

Type of nova that undergoes explosions multiple times, within a few decades.

High-mass star achieve what, to fuel elements up to iron?

The temperature necessary

Mass loss in fusion

The mass that is lost during fusion is converted into energy. Asa cording to the equation E=Mc²

The most stable element that cannot be fused or split without absorbing energy.

Iron

Core-collapse Supernova

A supernova resulting from the collapse of a high-mass star's core.

Chandrasekhar limit

The maximum mass that a white dwarf can have before it collapses.

Stellar nucleosynthesis

The process by which elements heavier than lithium are formed in stars.

r-process

Rapid neutron capture process that occurs in supernova explosions.