A Question about a sun from the past ...?

Question

I read a lot of articles about space, but I can't recall ever hearing anything about this.... You hear around every now and again that earth, people, etc are made out of 'star stuff' from the fusion reactions in the cores of stars. Are we borne from a single star that went supernova approx where we are now? If so, (and my real question =p) is anything known about it? Big, small, hot, cold etc..

Answer 1

Actually the label is referring to clouds of dust and gas from former novas and supernovas which collapsed due to gravity to the point of where it ignited and became a star. Thus the "star stuff" label.

As stars age, they start forming heavier elements in their cores until they form iron, after which the process stops. Then the star's gravity overcomes the outward pressure of the cooling nuclear reaction in it's core, and the star collapses, producing a shock wave that causes the star to violently blow away much of it's mass as dust and gas which includes heavy elements such as carbon, iron and oxygen.

Some stars go through several collapses and explosions before they settle down into white dwarfs. Some stars, if they are massive enough, become "black holes" after the explosion.

These dust and gas nebulae can travel long distances before coalescing again, or they can be absorbed by other stars and re-emitted as nova explosions again, so it is virtually impossible to tell if it came from a nova or supernova, and when and where the blast(s) occurred.

Answer 2

Our whole Solar system is made from re-cycled star material.
As a star ages, it burns up it's hydrogen and a byproduct of this nuclear fusion process is Helium. Once all the hydrogen is used up, the only way the star can keep generating energy is by burning helium. The byproduct of this process is the next heavier element and so forth until you get to Iron. Iron is such a stable element, that the star cannot use it for fuel.
At this point, the fate of the star depends on it's mass. Stars with a mass in excess of about 3 times the sun will end in a super Nova. In a super Nova, the star literally implodes and for a short time can generate energy in excess of a whole galaxy.
During this process temperatures are achieved that cannot be reached inside the star itself.
It is during this super high temperature period when all the elements heavier than Iron are created. Of course in this violent process most of the star's material is blasted out into space.
Where it can travel and disperse for millions of years in the form of a "Gas" cloud. It can encounter materials blown out by other stars or encounter other energy fields that cause clumps to form in these gas clouds. If you ever watched someone smoke a cigar or cigarette, you can see that the smoke in the air is not uniform, but swirls around. creating areas of dense smoke in one place while creating areas of much lesser density in others.
The same things happen to the gas clouds from a super nova. If any one of these areas becomes dense enough, gravity takes over and causes the cloud to contract and become even more dense, eventually resulting in a swirling disk and a new star. The new star system contains not only Hydrogen ( the most abundant element in the Universe), but all those heavier elements created when the original star went supernova. Without the original supernova there would be none of the heavy elements needed for life, or rocks or sand or plants, in short all the stuff that makes up the Solar system.
This process is ongoing and is observed by Astronomers all the time. We can see new stars being formed in Nebulae such as the big one in the sword of Orion, The Eagle nebula and many others. We encounter star development all the way from dark dense clumps of matter not yet dense enough to start nuclear fusion all the way to super young bright blue stars who have just begun their journey.
You don't even nedd a very big Telescope to see them yourself.
Yes, we are truly made out of Star Dust.
If the definition of an "Alien" is a life form that originates in outer space and is not native to earth, then it is obvious, we are all Aliens because we definitely came from outer space.
So, if you ever wonder if Aliens are real, say hello to the Alien next to you.

Adolph

Answer 3

It was extremely massive- only those stars can go supernova, which is what creates all the random elements we are. We're primarily carbon, which also comes from supergiants. So we were from a supernova. I'm not sure if it went here, but remember that after the explosion, it woudl have formed a massive nebula which keeps spreading out into space.

Answer 4

Sometime around 5 billion years ago a massive star exploded.
It ejected thousands of wedge or cigar shaped packets of rocky materiel.
These packets crashed into the edge of the hydrogen field that spawned the massive star
A giant smoke ring like wave was formed stirring the hydrogen field,causing our sun [among thousands of others] to coalesce and flinging the rocky debris into orbit around it and producing our solar system.

Answer 5

You refer to one of the theories that are necessary to connect the theory of Big Bang to the presently observable facts. It's nothing more that a hypothesis or an unproven theory that tries to explain the richness of heavy elements here on earth.
"We are all a product of stardust"
This theory postulates a blind coincidental chain of events that some early massive stars exploded and set free a cloud of junk containing all the necessary elements that are needed to build the earth and to start life.
It's accepted by many people who do not know how fine-tuned everything on earth is, and that science has no proof that life can start spontaneously even when all the elements and molecules are in place and just energy is added.
It's therefore more than just a postulated theory - it's a belief system. There is no way to test it. You either accept is a faith -like a religion. Or you reject it by using you own knowledge, reasoning and common sense.