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Cosmic Quest

Cosmic Quest: Episode 27: The Life and Death of Stars

Factual: History

Factual: Science & Nature

Episode 27

Episode 27: The Life and Death of Stars

The Life and Death of Stars

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Cosmic Quest, The Life and Death of Stars

Heather Couper looks at research that shows stars are like controlled nuclear explosions.

Astronomer Heather Couper looks at the research which showed that stars are like controlled nuclear explosions. From July 2008.

Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.

Until the modern era of astrophysics, nobody knew what made stars shine. The answer arose from the nuclear age. The sun and stars are like giant hydrogen bombs, controlled nuclear explosions.

In the 1950s, Fred Hoyle and his colleagues showed how new elements are created in stars as they burn hydrogen and helium. In the case of relatively small stars such as our sun, the fuel eventually runs out, the bloated outer layers are lost into space and a slowly cooling white dwarf remains. But massive stars begin to collapse in on themselves when fuel runs out at the core, creating a huge explosion known as a supernova.

Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.

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Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy

Astronomer Heather Couper charts the history of our growing understanding of the universe and progress of astronomy.

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