How can the nebula of a supernova remnant be the birthplace of a large number of stars?

Question

This may be a dumb question, but if the supernova remnant (the Crab Nebula, for example, which is theorized to be the remnant of a star that was recorded as having been witnessed exploding in 1054 A.D.) was once one star, then how can many stars form and continue forming from the remaining material (not even all of the material) of the one original star?

Answer 1

Normally a single supernova remnant does not spawn other stars- there simply isn't enough hydrogen- but many supernova remnants that have blended together, or huge molecular clouds, or nebulas, such as the Orion nebula or the Eagle nebula, have much more massive amounts of hydrogen and helium, and gravity waves that fluctuate throughout the universe cause stars to form in these nebulas. the Milky Way galaxy and most other galaxies are thick with molecular hydrogen, and gravity waves cause this hydrogen molecules to cling together and form huge nebulas. A supernova remnant is just dispersing the left over hydrogen and heluim from a dying star back into space. So do planetary nebulas, they were just caused by a much smaller mass star than the one that caused a supernova. A really, really massive star will collapse to form a black hole or neutron star. So to answer your question, stars mainly form from huge molecular hydrogen clouds, or nebulas, not from supernova remnants or planetary nebulas.

Answer 2

Because the supernova remnants coalesce in spots to form new stellar nurseries. The Crab Nebula may not be a great example, but he Orion and Eagle nebulae are prime examples. There are differnt kinds of nebulae. Emission nebulae, H-II regions, etc. The Crab's shell is an expanding supernova remnant seeding the universe with a new population of potential stars, but star formation from that remnant may not happen for billions of years. It is still way too hot and expanding way too rapidly to be a candidate for an EGG (Expanding Gaseous Globule), which are the mechanims for stellar nurseries.

Answer 3

Theoretically, it's possible, because all of those materials could create a star like a normal nebula does. That specific nebula, however, must be almost completely deprived of hydrogen and helium, which are the most important ingredients in star creation. I don't think stars can be born of anything heavier than hydrogen or helium, which were surely used up during the star's life.

I don't think any stars would form without helium or hydrogen. Heavier elements could fuse, but there would have to be an enormous amount of pressure, and I don't think a nebula can apply that kind of force by just collapsing. A star needs to be active in order to fuse heavy elements.

Answer 4

Supernova remnants are not by themselves stellar nurseries, as they are expanding outward too fast. But a supernova explosion can trigger star formation by compressing a nearby gas cloud as the supernova material speeds into the cloud.

Supernovae and other dying stars also recycle hydrogen back into the interstellar medium. The supernova itself produces large amounts of heavier elements from the core of the star, but even very massive stars have hydrogen envelopes which are blown off into space as the star dies.

Answer 5

Why can't the gases in a supernova remnant combine with other gases in space and form other stars? There are spectacular photos of the gaseous clouds being birthplaces for other stars. There are ways used to find the distance of such remnants and star clusters forming. It may have to do with how much gas and what type of stars are formed.

Answer 6

If the star exploded in a supernova, the star was about 20 times the size of our Sun or larger. That means that there's plenty of material left over for smaller stars like our Sun or even smaller.

Answer 7

the expanding shell from the explosion causes lazy drifting matter to move a little, ripping it out of its current drifting state - causing turbulences in it.
Its more the matter being already there, and not the matter being ejected in the nova.

Once having some motion there - matter is redistributed and starts piling up onto each other, thus forming stars and other celestial bodies.

This may not work right next to the nova remnant, but in some distance where the shockwave is no more that extreme.

This seems to be a healthy concept too for possibly forming habitable worlds, for being a little off such nova centers, cause often they could contain a strong pulsar

Answer 8

When a star explodes it gives off every kind of gas and dust you can think of, and one of theses gas is hydrogen.
First the dust and other Debra starts gathering together, then as the object increases in size the gravity increases and it starts pulling in more dust and gas until the gravity reaches a point to where fusion takes place, a new star is born from the death on a larger one, and as long as there is enough matter and hydrogen the new stars will keep growing.