Did this Supernova Leave Nothing Behind?

"Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth." -Jean Rostand

One of the most awesome events, literally, that happens in this Universe is when stars -- giant nuclear furnaces like our Sun -- die in the most energetic way possible: a supernova.

(Video credit: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Ors Hunor Detre, Oliver Krause), via YouTube.)

Every star that ever lived gets two chances to end their lives in this most spectacular of fashions. The hottest, bluest, most massive stars that are born burn through their nuclear fuel incredibly rapidly, accumulating a core of heavy metals just one million years after they're first born.

(Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.)

When that core gets massive enough and nuclear fusion can no longer provide enough outward pressure to counteract the tremendous gravitational force trying to collapse the core, we get a supernova explosion! In the end, there's a degenerate neutron star or black hole where the core once was, and the outer layers get blown off in that supernova.

But what about the stars that don't get there? This is the vast majority of stars; they are the 99%, and so are we!

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