# SuperNova sun explosion debris? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219 "2010-05-03T23:53:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/1 "2010-05-03T23:53:14Z")
If our sun were to go super nova and completely obliterate earth, and matter cannot be destroyed completely, what would the debris of our planet be like? What is the smallest particles earth would be blown into? Would it turn to gas, or what? Also, what form would the sun’s debris take? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/2 "2010-05-04T00:00:12Z")
The Earth might break apart into asteroids. I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure that when a star goes postal it just scatters its stuff out in a cloud. All non-Hydrogen matter comes from these explosions I believe. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/3 "2010-05-04T00:34:42Z")
The only way our sun goes supernova is if, after it becomes a white dwarf, it somehow hooks up with a red giant and starts siphoning off gas from its neighbor. Siphon too much and it goes \. Otherwise it doesn’t have the required mass to go supernova. Now our sun will lose its outer layers in any event, but in a much less catastrophic way by simply having them (relatively) slowly drift away, forming a planetary nebula. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/4 "2010-05-04T00:53:23Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > All non-Hydrogen matter comes from these explosions I believe. I think you mean all elements heavier than iron or nickel (these having the most tightly bound nuclei). ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/5 "2010-05-04T00:58:26Z")
I’m not a astrophysicist, but I wouldn’t expect the Earth to be completely destroyed, even assuming we triple (or whatever) the size of the Sun so that it can go nova. Atmosphere and Oceans blown off? Sure. Crust too? Much of it, maybe. Completely shattered into asteroids or whatever? Doesn’t sound right to me. I’ll admit, though, I’m not even sure how to do a back-of-the-envelope on this. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/6 "2010-05-04T01:40:04Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > I think you mean all elements heavier than iron or nickel (these having the most tightly bound nuclei). Actually, while your point that elements heavier than iron are only produced in supernovae, the other is also true – all atoms heavier than helium (muxch of which is primordial, and I believe diffuses adequately within a main sequence star to be emitted in comparatively small quantities in stellar winds and planetary nebula-forming “puffs”, are ensconced in the cores of larger stars where they are produced, until such time as they go supernova, so technically the distribution throughout the universe of oxygen, carbon, silicon, nitrogen, argon, phosphorus, aluminum, and the rest is also the result of supernovae. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/7 "2010-05-04T01:47:34Z")
OK, the area of a spherical shell with radius equal to the radius of the Earth’s orbit is about 2E17 km^2, and the Earth’s cross-section is 1.3E8 km^2, so the Earth will intercept about 1 part in 2.2 billion of the explosion. The mass of the Sun is about 330,000 times that of the Earth. Assuming one solar mass is ejected, the mass the Earth will intercept is only 1/6600 of the Earth’s mass. So I’m still thinking most of the Earth is left in one piece. Even Mercury, which has (roughly) 1/3 the orbital radius, 1/4 the cross-section, and 1/20th the mass, only intercepts about 1/150th of its mass. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/8 "2010-05-04T04:05:29Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > OK, the area of a spherical shell with radius equal to the radius of the Earth’s orbit is about 2E17 km^2, and the Earth’s cross-section is 1.3E8 km^2, so the Earth will intercept about 1 part in 2.2 billion of the explosion. The mass of the Sun is about 330,000 times that of the Earth. Assuming one solar mass is ejected, the mass the Earth will intercept is only 1/6600 of the Earth’s mass. > > So I’m still thinking most of the Earth is left in one piece. > > Even Mercury, which has (roughly) 1/3 the orbital radius, 1/4 the cross-section, and 1/20th the mass, only intercepts about 1/150th of its mass. Well, according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(energy)), a Supernova releases on the order of 10^44 J of energy, so even if the Earth only intercepts 10^-9 of that, that’s still 10^35 J, which is a whole lot! ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/9 "2010-05-04T05:17:52Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Assuming one solar mass is ejected, the mass the Earth will intercept is only 1/6600 of the Earth’s mass. That’s like saying a bullet can’t hurt you because it only weighs 5 grams. If the Earth intercepts 0.5 ppb of the energy (which it won’t do with 100% efficiency, but still…), that would be the equivalent of placing one Hiroshima-sized atomic bomb in _every cubic meter_ of the Earth’s volume. Not on the surface – throughout the whole Earth. Each cubic meter gets its very own atomic bomb. The Earth would be no more. (For a sense of scale of these explosions, see, for instance, the [Crab Nebula](http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051202.html), which is an 11-light-year-across (and growing) supernova remnant.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/10 "2010-05-04T06:42:02Z")
Every atom of every element in our bodies except the hydrogen (we are mostly hydrogen!) comes from dying stars. We are, as Carl Sagan used to say (Copernicus rest his soul), made of “star stuff”. Ain’t that neat? But so was Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/11 "2010-05-04T06:43:26Z")
I guess what I’m really asking is if the biggest catastrophic event possible happened to the sun, where it blows up with all the power of all of the H-bombs it’s supposed to have, what would happen to the planet Mercury, which is much closer. I’m just looking for what would be left after the worse case scenario and what form would it take? would it all be reduced to quarks, atoms, what? ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/12 "2010-05-04T06:51:17Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Every atom of every element in our bodies except the hydrogen (we are mostly hydrogen!) comes from dying stars. We are, as Carl Sagan used to say (Copernicus rest his soul), made of “star stuff”. Ain’t that neat? But so was Hitler. Gotta love the surprise invocation of Godwin’s Law. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/13 "2010-05-04T07:02:36Z")
Hey, the moment moved me. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/14 "2010-05-04T08:04:49Z")
jakesteele, let me note, as John DiFool and ZenBeam did in their posts, that the sun can’t become a supernova. It’s not heavy enough. It will become a red giant in about five billion years: > **[Sun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun)** > > The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a massive hot ball of plasma, inflated and heated by nuclear fusion reactions at its core. Part of this internal energy is emited from the Sun's surface as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation, providing most of the energy for life on Earth. > The Sun's radius is about 695,000 kilometers (432,000 miles), or 109 times that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, comprising about 99.86% of the total mass of the ... ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/15 "2010-05-04T08:25:23Z")
Well, I’d prefer not to get too technical but the smallest particles are commonly referred to in the scientific community as, ‘itsy bitsy’. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/16 "2010-05-04T11:31:18Z")
> [@Pasta](#): > > If the Earth intercepts 0.5 ppb of the energy (which it won’t do with 100% efficiency, but still…), that would be the equivalent of placing one Hiroshima-sized atomic bomb in _every cubic meter_ of the Earth’s volume. Not on the surface – throughout the whole Earth. > > Each cubic meter gets its very own atomic bomb. > > The Earth would be no more. (For a sense of scale of these explosions, see, for instance, the [Crab Nebula](http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051202.html), which is an 11-light-year-across (and growing) supernova remnant.) Yeah, looking at the energy does make more sense than just how much mass is intercepted. > [@beowullf](#): > > Well, according to Wikipedia, a Supernova releases on the order of 10^44 J of energy, so even if the Earth only intercepts 10^-9 of that, that’s still 10^35 J, which is a whole lot! About 500 times the Earth’s gravitational binding energy, so it could be obliterated. **Pasta** ’s bombs wouldn’t be distributed throughout the Earth, though, they’d all be on one side, so a lot of that energy would go into pushing the Earth outward from the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/17 "2010-05-04T15:52:28Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > jakesteele, let me note, as John DiFool and ZenBeam did in their posts, that the sun can’t become a supernova. It’s not heavy enough. It will become a red giant in about five billion years: > > [Sun - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun) Right. Not enough mass for a [Horrendous Space Kablooie](http://chaitanya1.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/the-horrendous-space-kablooie/). We’d get a half-assed expansion instead, which might break up the earth into half-assed-eroids. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/18 "2010-05-04T16:00:09Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#): > > Well, I’d prefer not to get too technical but the smallest particles are commonly referred to in the scientific community as, ‘itsy bitsy’. Pfft. You clearly haven’t seen the World Astrophysical Congress’s latest report, in which the smallest particles are now designated “teensy weensy.” Do try to keep up. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/19 "2010-05-04T16:37:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Pfft. You clearly haven’t seen the World Astrophysical Congress’s latest report, in which the smallest particles are now designated “teensy weensy.” Do try to keep up. [WIMPs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weakly_interacting_massive_particles) ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219/20 "2010-05-04T17:00:16Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > About 500 times the Earth’s gravitational binding energy, so it could be obliterated. **Pasta** ’s bombs wouldn’t be distributed throughout the Earth, though, they’d all be on one side, so a lot of that energy would go into pushing the Earth outward from the Sun. That assumes the explosion is symmetrical, isn’t most of the energy beamed along the rotational axis of the progenitor star? Is that true of all supernovae, or just the most powerful ones? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernova-sun-explosion-debris/538219.md?page=2)