Is the North Star going to explode?
Nope. Polaris the pole star – otherwise known as Alpha Ursae Minoris – is an F7 Yellow Supergiant star of approximately 4.5 stellar masses. If it follows the life cycle of a typical Yellow Supergiant star it will transition to a Red Supergiant star sometime towards the end of its life.
Is Vega bigger than the sun?
At present, Vega has more than twice the mass of the Sun and its bolometric luminosity is about 40 times the Sun’s. Because it is rotating rapidly and seen nearly pole-on, its apparent luminosity, calculated assuming it was the same brightness all over, is about 57 times the Sun’s.
How long do stars stay bright after they explode?
So to summarize: stars explode very quickly, in most cases they stay bright enough to observe for a few months to a year or so, but in certain special cases we can keep taking images of the supernova for years or even decades after the explosion.
Is the North Star still burning?
For all we know, the North Star might actually have burned out last August or in 1967 or at any time since the early fourteenth century and the news of its death just hasn’t reached us yet. The best we can say – can ever say, in that case – is that it was still burning on this date 680 years ago.
Can a star explode and not be dead?
The short answer is that it cannot be dead [meaning cold and emitting no energy] but it could have become a nova or possibly a supernova. Stars don’t actually explode like a firecracker or bomb. What happens is the balance between gravity [pushing in] and the energy produced [pushing out] gets upset momentarily and matter gets ejected.
How long does it take for a supernova to explode?
As for the explosions themselves, they indeed do not take long! Most supernova take a fraction of a second up to a couple seconds to explode. What we observe as the actual supernova is the light and energy that come out of that explosion. Typical supernova get brighter during the first 3 weeks or so after that very fast explosion.