Less Than Five - What is a Supernova?

A supernova is like when a giant star has a really big explosion that lights up the whole galaxy.

Imagine you have a balloon that's been inflated until it's as big as your bedroom. That’s kind of what a star looks like, super big and full of gas. Now, if the balloon pops, it makes a whoosh sound and everything around it gets shaken up. A supernova is like that pop but on an unimaginably huge scale.

Stars are like giant balls of fire made mostly of hydrogen, which is the same stuff that's in water. When they run out of fuel, they start to collapse, kind of like when a big building starts to fall down because it’s not strong enough anymore.

Then, boom! The star explodes with so much power that it can shine brighter than an entire galaxy for weeks or even months. It’s as if the whole sky turned into a giant fireworks show!

After the explosion, sometimes all that's left is a tiny, dense ball called a neutron star, imagine something about the size of a city but as heavy as a mountain! Other times, it might leave behind a black hole, which is like a cosmic vacuum cleaner that nothing can escape once it gets too close.