Supernova remnant

Common card · No. 234090

A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave. It consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar material it sweeps up and shocks along the way. There are two common routes to a supernova: either a massive star may run out of fuel, ceasing to generate fusion energy in its core, and collapsing inward under the force of its own gravity to form a neutron star or a black hole; or a white dwarf star may accrete material from a companion star until it reaches a critical mass and undergoes a carbon detonation. In either case, the resulting supernova explosion expels much or all of the stellar material with velocities as much as 10% the speed of light (or approximately 30,000 km/s) and a strong shock wave forms ahead of the ejecta that heats the upstream plasma up to temperatures well above millions of K. The shock continuously slows as it sweeps up the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University), Public domain