I've already seen dozens of videos on Youtube about how a Supernova works, but this is another level. A complete and very well illustrated lesson in under 20 minutes. Veritasium never disappoints.

Don't Read My Profile Photo ok

fck peace He said that these explosions don't happen symmetrically. That might be the reason.

@Lloyd S nice joke

Ok don’t read your profile pic. Got it. Thanks for the warning bro.

Your videos are thought-provoking, well-produced, and fun to watch. Thanks for making such great content.

Wow! Thats serious dedication, donating 50 dollars for this dude. Seriously, he does deserve it.

Would have donated it for Ukraine instead.. ..no offense intended, but Ukrainian children need donations much more than a large (and excellent) YT science channel. *Edit:* if there was no Ukraine war, i would 100% agree to your opinion and give the donation to Veritasium.

@dotThats some *serious* dedication there, too! I wonder if Ukraine will win the war, let’s wait and see. Time flies, and it will be a long one.

@dot this was not the time or place for this comment. He may have already donated for Ukraine. You don't know that.

@dot I haven't been following up on the war much but I am damn sure that they are good off. The US has given practically it's lung to the country; I'm sure the UN is probably helping; and there are so many donations and even some organizations relocating families out of the warzone. This feels pretty petty to comment. How about you donate there? Or how about you donate to homeless women and children? Or how about you donate to cancer treatment? Or Children's hospitals? Or to schools that don't have proper funding? Or to the residents in the Ohio Train Derailment? You get what I'm saying now? Honestly this comment I felt was disrespectful. People can donate to whatever they want; whenever they want; however they want. That's it. If you believe someone should've donated with THEIR money; you can instead with your own money. And before you even question me; no I did not donate anything. Period.

Ah yes, cosmic horrors beyond our comprehension. Thanks man

lovecraft?

You absolutely missed his point at the end as probably most of the thumbs up to your reply. If it hadn't been fro a cosmic dice roll a long long time ago WE wouldn't be here!!!!!!!

@John Petrakis I didn't

What happens? NOTHING! Just change the bulb.

I sometimes run the video at a less compressed speed for just those slower neuron fires a chance to catch up.

I was surprised a few years ago to learn that gold and heavier elements are unlikely to be created in a standard supernova but require a more extreme ultranova or similar event such as star collisions to produce special elements like gold. That just adds to how lucky we are to have such abundance of uranium, gold, etc on our planet.

I always appreciate the value of your productions. The bit where you showed how a star fuses the different elements as time goes on and for how long blew my mind.

same

A small piece of dust would probably blow your mind... How about AC Clark... he's a great scientist too!

It blew my mind, too, although I had first seen this information a few years ago at an open-house presentation of the Astronomy Department at the University of Manitoba. I don't remember all of the time periods though. Does anyone have a reference for each element, all the way to iron? I was disappointed this video didn't give all of the times. I think in the end it was minutes, or seconds!

@Kevin Wimms Why the insult?

I'm left in awe at the explanation of how some tiny, tiny, weightless, harmless Neutrino... detonates the largest bombs in the known Universe. Just amazing how super-large events can have the smallest origins. Love this. Thank you.

i’m extremely proud of the way my dad explained supernovae to me when i was about 5. he told me to put my hands out, facing each other, and then he put his hands on mine. he then told me to push outwards, as hard as i can, while he pushed inwards, which made my hands collapse. he said that when a star wasn’t strong enough anymore then gravity won. now that i’m older, i’m really enjoying this more comprehensive explanation

that is really cool

You had an uncommonly cool dad...

Thanks I will explain it like this to my children 😊

Your dad is amazing ❤️

Your father is wildly intelligent

The fact that a supernova thousands of light years away can cause a measurable change in our atmosphere is absolutely mindblowing to me. The fact that a gamma burst 2.5 BILLION light years away caused a noticeable effect is similarly mind-melting. Astronomy stuff really can be incredible. Thanks for putting together a great video on this!

It's a U- Bomb ...

But the GbR got me thinking. Wouldn't it only effect us if one of the two beams is targeted directly at us? Seems like that lowers the chance of a hit even with an explosion within range dramatically to me. I didn't full get from the video if we have to be in the beam or not, but if so, it seems much less impressive to me than the supernova to me. You focus all the energy into two directions, of course it has a much higher range. Its like comparing a rifle to a grenade to me, but I could have understood it wrong.

@Electric paisy you are right, a GRB is a very narrow stream of particles, like a rifle, as you very cleverly put it. A stray bullet coming at us in this vast space is very unlikely, but GRBs are much more frequent than supernovae and are deadlier from further away.

yeah exactly I thought we could safely watch the big cosmic fireworks from like a few lightyears away xd but this really changed my perspective on how big these "fireworks" actually are!

It feels chilling to think about that actually being the end times for which ever species lived within the system.

Somebody please tell Veritasium to make in depth video about TON-618

And in any nearby system as well.

Hmm I don't worry at all, because (if we survive this long) then it is no longer my problem in a few decades xD

"...lived within the system." _What species_ , living in _which_ system??

@Baxterchov I assume whatever sapient species lived in orbit of the star that went supernova On a related note: Has anyone here played or heard of the game Outer Wilds?

Thanks for the update about the Gamma Burst Ray observed on 9 October on Earth. I learned most of the astrophysics a long time ago and certainly like the comprehensive video display of it, but the consequences for what the effects were on Earth and on it's life that are discovered since are fascinating. It is amazing how much information you have compressed in a single 20 minute video and still be clear about the many subjects. I also like that you show the scientific abstracts. Exceptionally well done!

Thanks for bringing this subject down to earth - very well explained

You sir, win best pun of the week!

I don't want any of those cosmic pipe bombs anywhere NEAR Earth

@Mike Oxmall good sir, u need to define near, because as mentioned even a star going hypernova 150 MILLION light years away, caused mass extinction on earth

@Rapid Readers white

Down to earth huh

This was such a ridiculously interesting episode! I didn’t understand half of it, but it was so exciting to learn all these new things.

Whenever I watch an almost 20 minute long Veritasium video, I never lose interest throughout the video and it's consistently gets my attention. The pacing of him talking quickly and pausing to make a transition makes it easier to retain the information. Also his voice is very clear and comprehensible. As always amazing stuff Veritasium, you never fail to get my attention.

You expained this clearly yourself.

Him and Vsauce are my favorite YouTube learning channels. Veritasium seems more "normal" interesting while Vsauce keeps your attention by being "weird" interesting.

Also great choice of background music

couldn't agree more very well put :)

@Peter i like watching thoughty2 also

This is the kind of video that YouTube thrives on. To explain such catastrophic events without any heavy terminologies is simply genius of you. Makes me wanna research more on this subject. Cheers! Much love from India.

Thank you Derek! As always, I learned things. This w as quite a detailed explanation (as far as we know today of course) about some incredible Cosmic events. 👍🤩 I enjoy that, the more we learn, the more questions we have, and the more we want to know!😎

Very interesting video, well done! One question: when you picked up the neutrino bursts and then called scientists to watch for a supernovae, did you ever wonder if it might be the prelude to a Gamma Ray Burst? Since both move at the speed of light, the neutrino flash might be our only warning (not that we can do much about it). Just wondering if that ever crossed your mind.

Well, this is undoubtedly one of the best explanations about how stars and supernovas work I've ever seen. Science is one of those areas of life in which, just as soon as we think we understand a thing, we find out more about it--or in some cases relearn what we thought we knew. Thank goodness for the guide who takes us along on that journey and is just as fascinated along the way as we are (I'm talking about you, Comrade Derek).

The explanation of neutronization is incorrect. Electrons are not "forced into their lowest energy state".

Kim likes astronomy! NICE!

bro had enough of north korea.. he made a youtube account, wanna make videos for his lunch money

This is an example of a perfect physics lecture, one that is interesting to people of all levels of science. The nucleon binding energy graph explains so much and it is so well explained.

This guy has that enthusiasm it’s like he is as amazed as his viewers. Like he’s not teaching or lecturing he is shearing information. I adore everything he does!

okay 👌 what i can i think 💭 would have been a little bit longer but if i can go on a break and i just make a new thing and it is fine too so much more like 👍 but it looks better and it will just keep you in touch and be 😅😅

Repent to Jesus Christ “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭60‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬ J

How does neon fuse into oxygen (at 3:54) Neon(Atomic no 10) is heavier than oxygen (Atomic no 8)

What the hell are these replies ?

Man! This one solved all my curiosities about supernovae.Straight to the point and I can clearly understand what you want to explain in this content.Thanks mate!

I have always appreciated every one of your presentations and I hope I wasn't too rough with what I said about the missing parts of the equation, regarding exploding stars. . I just want you to know I still appreciate everyone of your explanations, including this one. You do a darn good job.

So much to learn in this short video. Left me wondering whether we can find other ways to catch the neutrinos and thus make them do work for us since there's just this massive flux of them through each of us and everything around.

Great video! Very informative and to the point. Great production and visuals. Thank you all for your efforts.

I never understood supernovae before - I'm sure I still don't - but now I have a better grasp, and I appreciate that you did this. Thanks!

The fact that we as stardust have evolved to figure this stuff out is completely mind boggling

It’s no wonder that it had to have happened somewhere within an infinite universe with countless outcomes.

@ChinnuWoW makes it no less amazing

prob happened a few times in other galaxies and possibly our own we just don't know of yet..

@clownavenger yet…far more likely than not. Even multiple times, given the infinitude, still makes it outrageously rare & wondrous.

@Less More yeah it's fairly rare if you mean how many square light-years and the amount of time it takes for a single occurrence.

It's crazy that not so much time ago, I used to buy dvds or even blue rays with documentaries about this topics. The fact that nowadays it's free on YouTube it's amazing, and with the same quality (even more maybe) I'm very thankful with this kind of creators, the are the real MVP

Really appreciate excellent videos like this one which explain for us laymen in terms we can understand the immense complexity of the universe which so many great minds have toiled for centuries to uncover. In this era of insane disinformation, this shines a brilliant light on truth. A million thanks!

You're a great teacher. The life cycles of stars are just unbelievably fascinating. - and to think we are all a product of of super nova explosions. I think that was the idea behind a line from Joni Mitchell's song, Woodstock. "We are stardust, we are golden. We are billion-year-old carbon"

I love the intersection of particle physics and celestial mechanics. Our sweet spot of life on this planet, from the primordial ooze to the inevitable end of sentient life, will have its own intersection. Personally, I am hoping for an instantaneous and painless end... bearing witness to the next extinction event is at the very bottom of my "must see" list. Thanks for all your awesome science... may you never run out of material 🙂

I’m curious how they figured out neutrinos are what causes the super nova. Very interesting. Also I like those magnetic atoms, really cool!

The connection between astronomy, historic man, and palaeontology as a whole was absolutely mind opening. It is this reason this channel is one of the best channels on YouTube

That's right lil Jacob 😊

SUPERNOVA! SUPERNOVA! SUPERNOVA GOES POP!

They follow the Cosmos format, very good show

Im i agree

exatamente, q video gostoso

Can you imagine what a treat it would be to be able to safely observe a supernova up close à la Star Trek or something but actually do it in real life that would be so awe-inspiring!

I think it would be a better treat to see people reaching for their electric blankets when the sun burns out.

The fusion process was so beautifully explained , especially when you have an idea what he is talking about and why its happening

This is a wonderful sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos Episode 9, The Lives of the Stars, still accurate after nearly 40 years. Well done Derek!

Thank you so much for this video! I am just making an analisys and presentation of those deep sea crust research for 60Fe (Knie et al. 2004) you covered and it really helped me to prepare my presentation for non-astrophysical public. Thanks again 😄

Lmao XD

I have seen other you-tube videos trying to explain supernovas. Mostly they say something like, once the elements fuse into iron, all fusion stops and the star starts collapsing in on itself at .2 the speed of light. This video explained it a bit more in-depth and really increased my understanding as to why iron is what starts the collapse. Thank you.

This is far better than a complete sponsored documentary. This is very inspirational and underrated content!

Definitely not underrated. But youre right great content.

yeah, this is basically why i gave up watching TV about 10-15 years ago.

@Ignirium bruh lol

13.1m subs doesn´t qualify as underrated ;-)

@belledetector haha also true. but still, I believe YouTube creators are still underrated and they deserve more.

you have such a good way of explaining things! keep up the good work :)

hearing about galactical level problems like this makes me think we really need to get things figured out on our tiny rock fast so we can focus on larger problems, lot of work to do I guess

Haha 5 billion years left for our own sun, let's not waste it 😅

Well thats future humanity's problem lol

Another proof that what we take for granted and generally think has always been the norm on Earth is mostly due to insanely vast amounts of luck, has changed and will definitely change again greatly! Great video, thanks!

I feel like it's not luck. It's like if enough time is given, all the things that can happen will happen. A lot of such events must've occured and the sustainability of life on this planet was one of the outcomes which ended up becoming true and here we are. The same reason why existence of alien looks totally possible.

@Student hard to disagree but.. i don't think everything can happen nor will. On a smaller scale i could have just avoided replying to you. No big deal. On greater scale, a star fart could happen which may diverge slightly the course of a big rock on its way to hit Earth in 1000 years. Who knows though. Fascinating

Brilliantly written, brilliantly produced. You are the perfect educator.

It's crazy the stuff that's going on in our universe, the absolute scale of it is just mind boggling.

More depressing is we are born too soon to know more.

REMEMBER.... THAT'S FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE Imagine the vastness of all this from the perspective of a microbiotic organism . from their perspective , JUST US is amazing

I watch an obscene amount of science youtube, and love supernova videos. I learned a ton from this video. You have done something wonderful here Derek.

Lni iu I’m

Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the whole world's sins. They that believeth and are baptized (with the Holy Spirit) shall be saved; but they that believeth not shall be damned. Those led by the Holy Spirit do not abide in wickedness. *God is ONE manifesting himself as THREE;* the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Bless him! *For these three are one.* As I am led by the Holy Spirit, nothing I state is a lie, but the truth of God. Anyone who tells you differently is misinformed or a liar. They do not know God, nor led by him. Anyone who *claims* to be a Christian and is against what I am doing, and where I am doing it; the Holy Spirit does not dwell within them, they lack understanding. They know not God, read his word, and their religion is in vain. Do not hear them, they will mislead you, the lost cannot guide the lost.

When you trust in God and cast your cares (worries, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts) upon him, they will be NO MORE! Know that there is power in the name Jesus Christ! His name casts out demons and heals! The world is wicked, evil, and of the devil. I too, was a wicked sinner of the world before I opened my heart to God. I am living proof of God's work and fruitfulness! He is an active God who hears the prayers of his! God's children are set apart (holy) and righteous. The devil is a liar that comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy; that includes your relationship with God! Open your heart to God, repent of your sins (he will forgive you), and let him direct your path. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands and purify your heart, lest you walk with the devil and follow him to hell.

Agreed, what are some of your favorite science channels?

It is so cool tbh i know that humans were not really meant to find out these things or even comprehend them. We were meant to be oogaboogaa at best.

People were so lucky back then to be able to gaze up at the unobstructed milky way, in any city in the world. It was such an immense source of inspiration and wonderment..

In a way, yes. But they also had no idea what they were looking at.

Great & fascinating video. Very well explained by Derek , cosmic nuclear power is another level to that created by ourselves......that's probably a good thing !! Also the historic and environmental effects of the supernovae very well covered.

Question: What is the time scale for things in a supernova? We know that prior to the supernova, the star grows in diameter, but exactly at what rate? How long does the nova shine bright?

I'd love to see Black Holes explained in this format. It's awesome.

Brilliantly explained ! One of the most detailed videos on Supernovae

Last year, I almost joined the Brian fields research group after listening to his presentation on this topic. He talked about how they had to look through sediment samples to find traces of Fe-60. I thought it was so cool that we could learn so much about the history of our cosmic neighbourhood just by observing earth. It's amazing to see this topic explained so well.

It doesn't happen "just by observing earth". It's actually a lot of different scientific disciplines coming together to understand what we're looking at. This is even more impressive than you make it sound.

Where there's a will, there is a way! - Humanity

why almost?

Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the whole world's sins. They that believeth and are baptized (with the Holy Spirit) shall be saved; but they that believeth not shall be damned. Those led by the Holy Spirit do not abide in wickedness. *God is ONE manifesting himself as THREE;* the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Bless him! *For these three are one.* As I am led by the Holy Spirit, nothing I state is a lie, but the truth of God. Anyone who tells you differently is misinformed or a liar. They do not know God, nor led by him. Anyone who *claims* to be a Christian and is against what I am doing, and where I am doing it; the Holy Spirit does not dwell within them, they lack understanding. They know not God, read his word, and their religion is in vain. Do not hear them, they will mislead you, the lost cannot guide the lost.

When you trust in God and cast your cares (worries, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts) upon him, they will be NO MORE! Know that there is power in the name Jesus Christ! His name casts out demons and heals! The world is wicked, evil, and of the devil. I too, was a wicked sinner of the world before I opened my heart to God. I am living proof of God's work and fruitfulness! He is an active God who hears the prayers of his! God's children are set apart (holy) and righteous. The devil is a liar that comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy; that includes your relationship with God! Open your heart to God, repent of your sins (he will forgive you), and let him direct your path. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands and purify your heart, lest you walk with the devil and follow him to hell.

I still cannot believe how lucky we are just to be alive. I mean what are the odds...

Like 73% probably

The odds are 100% because we exist

@MateoConLechuga ?

@MateoConLechuga The probability that u will get heads, in a coin flip, isn't 100% if the coin lands on heads.

As a lifelong fan of all things science, I’ve been aware of and understood the reasons for supernova. That said, I’ve never heard or in this case seen a more meaningful explanation than what you provide in this video. Bravo! 😎

I knew about supernova's and stellar life from around a 2 years but still after reading about it at least 10 times on web and in two books I was unknown about these complexities that happen inside it.

Very nicely done video. Avoiding most technical terms and clearly explaining without any need for viewers to know concepts beforehand.

This video was surprisingly informative for the average person. Great job.

I would love to see their storyboard when they were planning to produce this video! The storytelling is superb and the simplification (without compromising) of a complicated topic is impeccable.

Yeah, this took a lot of creativity. It's one thing to make a video about supernovae, but this goes beyond just explaining a scientific concept, and it tells a story I haven't seen before.

The title should've been different. It's clickbait for a bunch of overstuffed information.

I really love this channel. I learn so much in a very comprehensible way.

The illustrations in this video are amazing. Very very well done job on this video.

It's crazy to think that at any moment, we could randomly be wiped out by a beam of radiation. Or even worse, a random neutron star could come flying through our solar system and completely obliterate our whole solar system.

As cool as it is to learn about this I always wonder how scientists learn this stuff? How did we figure out the composition and lifespan of starts that will outlive us by an immense magnitude and are so far out of our reach?

First channel I ever see to take neutrino into account when talking about supernova, very impressive

Love your videos man. I'm a regular joe with no notable math or science skills whatsoever but for some reason your explanations makes sense to me. You should get a Nobel prize for educating the masses in all sorts of subjects. Thank you for the various topics over the years and I hope it will be so many more lessons to listen to in the future. Space is damn scary and amazing at the same time!

Agreed. A Veritasium video with hundreds of thousands of views may have taught/inspired more minds than any regular teacher in a lifetime.

I love this channel, but a Nobel Prize is a bit much..

@Jeffrey Suen my love for stem literally stemmed from this channel

Very well said.

Ironside Amen! Completely relevant /s

"The blood of life shines red from the death of former stars" (A poem by Bertil Gelland, freely translated to English. It assumes that those novas are the only source of iron, and that iron is what makes hemoglobin red)

Hello, hope you are well. I'm very interested in this poem, but i can't seem to find it complete, could you be kind enough to share it? or share a place where i could read more about Bertil Gelland? There are many results by searching the name and i'm unsure to which one you refer.

It is a correct assumption. There is no other plausible mechanism for generating large quantities of iron-53.

Another of the two-liners: "A human life is short, but it has been prepared in 14 billion years"

Iron Lung

Arthropods (which don't have red blood): are we a joke to you?

When we talk about the immense power and far-reaching effects of cosmic masses, it's humbling to realize just how tiny and vulnerable we are as humans. It puts our existence as a species into perspective.

Nothing is better than a episode of vertasium for quality information.

Its explanations like the ones he gives near the end of the video of how we potentially came into being that makes me think we really are a one off life form.

Love how Veritasium took this topic and really went in depth with different scenarios. Unlike other clickbait "Scientific" youtube channels out there

A minor error at 8:21: While some very massive stars can theoretically go straight to being a black hole when they collapse most Black holes are thought to be the result of core collapse supernovae in stars that are too massive for the remnant to be a neutron star. This is when the remnant is so massive that neutron degeneracy pressure (and even quark degeneracy pressure) are overcome. Dr. Derek, you are the modern-day Richard Feynman. Your ability to explain incredibly complex concepts in such a way that a layman is able to understand is extraordinary and I can only dream of sharing the planet with more minds like yours.

@Some Jerk Proof?

@Some Jerk Do you have a cell phone with a gps? That works because space, gravity and therefore, black holes are reality, whether you're ignorant to it or not.

@Doug Vandegrift GPS has been around since the 40s since it is and always has been tower based. Trans-oceanic flights have no benefit from GPS since there are no towers in the ocean. Remember when that Malaysian flight went missing? Seems odd in a world with 20,000+ so-called satellites keeping an eye on everything.

@Jaideep Shekhar What is my proof something doesn't exist? A complete and utter lack of proof it does for starters.

It's so wild to me how people figure stuff like this out, I can not even really comprehend it when it's explained to me in a very logical and digestible manner like this. I mean I understand the gist of it, the basics, the how. But what I can't really wrap my head around is the why, I find it endlessly fascinating, but my mind isn't set up so that I can actually do much with my fascination, just watch videos like this, or rewatch Carl Sagans Cosmos for the 50:th time, and just enjoy finding out more about the universe.

WOW. Makes me wonder how insignificant our daily problems are in this cosmic scheme of things. Insignificant yet fortunate. Lots of Love to Veritasium from India.

Man, imagine living in a world where a very bright star could cast a shadow.... It´s really a shame that you have to travel to the edge of the world to be able to actually see what the nightsky truely looks like. I will never forget that for the rest of my life, this is how impressive it is!

Where was that place more precisely? High in the mountains?

@worroSfOretsevraH The craziest i´ve ever seen was at the summit of Mount John, there is a special dark sky reserve at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. You literally could see our neighbour galaxy Andromeda with your bare eyes, it was completely mind boggling!

Do we have any evidence of any star that could become a supernova in the next 50 years for example? I would like to be lucky to witness something like this that I will probably have left of life (hopefully)...

Clarification: There are stars that go supernova AND form black holes as well. The formation of a black hole doesn't mean that there is no supernova, which is clarified quite late in the video and might lead to quite some misunderstanding in the first place. Still this is another perfect video!

thank you for clarifying what the video clarifies itself

yes

So when do blackholes form and when do supernovae?

@Rahul Banerjee when the mass of expansion is high enough to force the mass density apart, its explosive expansion stops and all that mass recondenses. If their isnt enough mass to form a black hole, it forms a neutron star instead.

A stellar type black hole will always be preceded by a supernova, and the more massive the star, the bigger it will be.

This is a related, but somewhat unrelated question. Is it possible that the removal of Coulombic forces could force the Earth's Core to form into a Hypernova? I ask because there is this one anime (No Game No Life, would recommend, BTW) that claimed that it forced temps to nearly 50 billion degrees celsius, which was also stated to be rivalling the Big Bang. Just curious here

I can't believe I can know all this information for free. Amazing job!

I have always wondered. If a cosmic explosion that could wipe out a Galaxy happens, would we see it just as it happens, millions of light years away or would we only see if long after when it's already too late to prepare ourselves.

I didn't know every half a million years a star passes so close to us that was a fun fact and a bit scary and respect due to his previous work in an observatory you never know who youre learning from with these Youtubers

Hey man great video as well as animations. You said that the iron core has to be more than 1.4S but isn't it the mass of the whole star which should be above this litmit

Great video! I did a degree in physics and astronomy and can say this was a great, easy to understand review of some of our favourite cosmological objects and I really enjoyed you linking some of the supernova events in the past with extinction events on earth :) I didn't know about some of those connections, thanks as always for sharing!

What do you think about micro nova or a shell release?

That’s great! Published any papers?

"... easy to understand review..." - Well, Jordan, your brain and mine must be made of material so astronomically different as to defy description.

we need more smart people in this world like this guy right here. thanks for your awesome introduction about our earth and the birth of our solar system good sir.

Veritasium never disappoints. He always tells you true stuff unlike comparison YouTube Chanel’s

20,000 light years away and it cast a shadow on earth!! How can you sleep after thinking of that. Absolutely amazing.

Hey, I don't know if you see this, but you've made me very curious about something. I've started going down a rabbit hole to try to understand, but I think I'm at the limit of what I can understand with fusion physics. At 3:50, while you are talking about the sequence of reactions occurring in the core, I was surprised to see Neon before Oxygen. I would expect the atomic number to keep rising by 2 for each helium nucleus being fused in. Why does the order seem to skip over oxygen, then go backwards? Thanks for the cool video and giving me a fun puzzle to solve.

@Zachary Dale I understand your confussion. The thing is that Neon(20) is actually formed alongside Helium(4) and then 2 Neon aton undergo fussion to form Magnesium (24) and Oxygen(16).Here Magnesium is formed because it has a complete s-orbital thus more stable so as a by product oxygen is formed. The trends always don't go in increasing order because of the electronic configurations and varying stability. I am a student and this is not my expertise so if there were any mistakes please correct me😅

and sorry for the late reply but your observation was way too cool not to reply😁

Well, we are going away folks, as we always knew we would. Supernovae just make it the most appropriate way to go about it. Excellent episode Derek, thank you.

Our sun will become a red giant. It's not massive enough to become a super nova, if that's what you are thinking.

Small addendum regarding the name Supernova that you mention (1:20): Kepler's teacher and mentor, Tycho Brahe, was the first to publish a book concerning a new star (stella nova), namely SN1572 or "Tycho's Supernova", which appeared 32 years earlier (TWO visible supernovae in a lifetime and NONE since!) Brahe's book was "De nova et nullius aevi memoria prius visa stella", ("Concerning the Star, new and never before seen in the life or memory of anyone").

Underrated comment.

SN1987A was visible to the naked eye.

@mytube001 It was indeed visible, but it wasn't in our galaxy, but in one of our closest neighbors, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

@Jens Riggelsen Yes, but you only wrote "two visible supernovae in a lifetime and none since", which isn't correct. No mention of them having to be in our galaxy.

I would love to see this happening right before my eyes. Crazy but it's fascinating!

I read somewhere that by the time a star goes "nova" it will have only consumed approx. 3% of it's overall Hydrogen/mass...is that right? Also, I recall they back-calculated that the Hiroshima bomb only "converted" about 3% of it's Uranium pit into blast/energy...is any of that correct? And is there any authentic "significance" to this 3% ratio that keeps popping up? I need to know so I can start prepping for the next Nova...

The ammount of Uranium in the Hiroshima bomb the underwent fission was around 1kg of the 64kg it contained it was an incredibly inneficient design. But even converting that tiny ammount of mass released a whole lot of energy.

This is unfortunately just one of those times the pattern machines in our heads see things that aren't there.

@Cameron Eridan Oh, I was sure it was a Matrix-glitch; man, I am hanging to take the Red Pill! Psst! Have you got one?

@Tolen Tarpay what on earth do you want estrogen for

This is amazing. But how do they know all of this? I suppose it is all theory based on knowledge that is way over my head. I believe that these scientists are the only hope that we have to save mankind from destroying itself. Videos like this are very useful in recruiting much needed young minds into being interested in science. Thank You Veritasium!!

Imagine how little the chances were for us to be here. It required the explosion of a supernova close enough to collapse our gas cloud but it also required no explosions of supernovas nearby long enough so the life could develop for billions of years, not to be wiped out 😅

Thanks for all your videos. They are great. I have a question. At 8'24'' you say some stars "form black holes instead, wich means they do not go supernova". Well, I confess that until now it was my understanding that a black hole is formed after a supernova of a star massive enough. Can you clarify? Thank you again! And congratulations.

Veritasium is consistently better-written, better-edited, and better-explained than any other YouTube channel I've found yet. I wish more science-oriented channels had standards as high as Veritasium.

They can't so they accept mediocrity.

Yeah, but Derek has more than 10 million subscribers and a team working with him... not all channels can afford that.

because Derek is interested in cinematography too thats why his videos are different from others

Kurzgesagt is also an amazing channel.

a very nice show! Thanks for the whole staff for the whole stuff.

interesting. i would love to know more about how they make up this teories, and how they come up with these number. thanks!

This is crazy stuff. I actually wonder how much of it is actually true vs hypothetical

As usual incredibly interesting. Veritasium is by far my favorite foreign channel

It is sort of surreal knowing that everything we see, everyone we know, and every life form that exists and has existed are all from former stars.

I have always admired your ability to elegantly describe the beauty of the universe. Amazing. You are one of the reasons I'm pursuing a degree in physics.

Good luck! It's difficult but rewarding. I did bachelors and masters in physics, and loved it. It's also buys you a TON of options professionally, and can get you some very high paying jobs.

@TacoBanana what kind of jobs?

A pretty broad range @Robert Jušić . As a physicist, in college you'll likely work with: 1 - Coding, like python, Labview, Python or Statistica 2 - TONS of math, you pretty much get a bachelors with a very similar skill set to a mathematician 3 - Equipment training, if you work in research 4 - Technical communication skills: From presentations and paper writing so after graduation, if you learn to communicate your skill set, you can be an analysist (in lots of industries), data eng, software eng, professor, researcher, or most types of engineering roles. My background is in applied physics, but I've worked my entire career as a process eng in manufacturing. The big part is learning how to communicate that the skills you have are useful. Communicating how learning advanced mathematics can help in a real world situation

@TacoBanana curently on my 2nd year of mechanichael enginering and constantly anxious that im not gonna find a job that im truly happy or usefull at. How did you menage to comunicate that your skills are usefull?

@Robert Jušić I mean, if you go into a job interview, can you articulate how you can use your math and analytical skills to help a business operate? Can you situate how you can help with your knowledge. Also, congrats, everyone gets nervous, but if you are going to mechanical engineering, you should have options!

Amazing work, keep it up!

How do Neutrinos transfer their kinetic energy and cause a supernova? Do they constantly interact with Neutrons and Protons via the Weak force until they leave the star? Or is there another way they can transfer their momentum to other particles?

On one hand, it is incomprehensible how much we have learned about our universe, but on the other hand, it is incomprehensible how unfathomable the universe still is.

A comment about the "other" type of super nova, described at 8:39: The white dwarf actually doesn't collapse and bounce, it is a runaway thermonuclear fusion reaction that creates the explosion. So it is basically a big thermonuclear bomb. Because of this, they generally don't leave a massive object - the core - behind, that forms a neutron star or black hole. Instead the former star is completely destroyed with it's remains flying into all directions.