In Our Time

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

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In Our Time: The Death of Stars

09/06/2022

The Death of Stars

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Death of Stars

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the ends of stars can lead to new planets and new life

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how so much in the Universe, and much of our understanding of it, depends on changes in stars as they die after millions or billions of stable years

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the abrupt transformation of stars after shining brightly for millions or billions of years, once they lack the fuel to counter the force of gravity. Those like our own star, the Sun, become red giants, expanding outwards and consuming nearby planets, only to collapse into dense white dwarves. The massive stars, up to fifty times the mass of the Sun, burst into supernovas, visible from Earth in daytime, and become incredibly dense neutron stars or black holes. In these moments of collapse, the intense heat and pressure can create all the known elements to form gases and dust which may eventually combine to form new stars, new planets and, as on Earth, new life.

The image above  is of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, approximately 10,000 light years away, from a once massive star that died in a supernova explosion that was first seen from Earth in 1690

With

Martin Rees
Astronomer Royal, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Carolin Crawford
Emeritus Member of the Institute of Astronomy and Emeritus Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

And

Mark Sullivan
Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southampton

Producer: Simon Tillotson

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