What are stars made of and why do they explode?

Question

Is this the same for the sun in our solar system

Answer 1

Stars are made mainly of hydrogen, helium, carbon, and iron (more hydrogen, then helium, and finally only some carbon, and almost no iron).

They operate by combining hydrogen into helium in a process called fusion. This releases heat and light.

As they run out of hydrogen, they combine helium into carbon. This makes them cooler, and also causes them to swell. Eventually, they combine carbon into iron, and grow to a huge size.

Eventually, they get too large and collapse back upon themsellves, and this sometimes (but not often) causes a large explosion called a supernova.

Answer 2

Stars are basically balls of gas, made up of primarily hydrogen and helium. The sun is just a really big star, much hotter than the others. It's actually so hot, that the hydrogen in the sun is undergoing a constant nuclear reaction, like a big bomb.

Simply, stars explode because they run out a fuel. A star is constantly burning energy in the form of the heat and light that it emits. The star makes up for this by generating energy through nuclear fission at the center of the star (where the intense pressure and temperature allow for it to happen).

If the star loses fuel, it can no longer produce energy to make up for what its losing, and the star explodes.

Answer 3

A star is formed from dust particles and gas, pulled together by gravity. Reactions take place, making the star hot and so 'glow'.

They explode into a supernova (after becoming a red giant) because there are reactions going on with the larger stars, and so the red giant expands and so explodes into a supernova.

And yes - this applies to our sun as well! But don't worry - we've got a few billion years or so until it becomes a red giant (a red giant being cooler, so earth would freeze when this happens)...

Answer 4

Okay, so I'm going to try and explain the complex life of stars here, only simplified, bear with me.

Stars are made up of Helium and Hydrogen, what's happening is nuclear fusion, this reaction gives out alot of energy in the form of heat and light, unfortunatly for the stars their fuel source (the helium and hydrogen) eventually gets used up (billions of years), at which point, depending on the size of the star, they either burn out and become a neutron star (just a big ball of everything left over) or they become a red giant, where it explodes.

Answer 5

Stars are gigantic nuclear fusion reactors. They consist of huge amounts of Hydrogen gas which 'burns' and becomes Helium. When all the fuel runs out the reaction stops. This allows gravity to take over and squeeze the remaining matter down to a small fraction of the star's original size. If the star is very large to begin with, this rapid squeezing can cause immense explosions called Novae or Supernovae.

Answer 6

Stars are made-up of Hydrogen and Helium. They explode because they have gone so massive. You know, like a balloon. Try puffing on a balloon until it gets so massive. No sooner it will explode. The difference is that when a star explodes, it produces a spectacular sight we call Super Nova. When a balloon explodes, all we have are ugly scattered rubber.

Answer 7

our sun is a star, and there are millions of them in the universe, The reason they explode is because there energy runs out. and the star starts to expand and then shrinks into a red dwarf before exploding, this is not due to happen to our sun for at least 4.5 billion years

Answer 8

stars are made from hydrogen, and under extreme pressure from gravity, the hydrogen atoms to fuse together to form helium. when there is not enough fuel left, the star expands, then the core collapses and the outer layers burn off. only really big stars go supernova, which is when they expand into a red supergiant, so uses up its fuel and becomes unstable, and it collapses very rapidly. this rapid contraction causes the core to heat up to millions of degrees Kelvin, and the star explodes into a supernova.

Answer 9

The same as our sun. They are made of very dense gases which are so compressed that the atoms become very active creating very high temperatures.

You would need to understand the theory of nuclear physics to find out why they explode. An expertise that is way out of my limited knowledge.

I don't think many nuclear physicists would post to these forums so your question may go unanswered.

Answer 10

Made from hydrogen,
they explode because the chemical explosions(inside the sun) begin to die down and then the whole thing implodes!
Something on it on my yahoo there today,