This article was taken from the March 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Supermassive stars with a mass between 55,000 and 56,000 times larger than our Sun, don't behave like normal stars. In this simulation of one exploding, physicists have discovered that when they die they don't form a black hole, as dying stars usually do.
Instead they explode as a supernova -- a stellar eruption that briefly outshines the entire galaxy. The idea: this could have led to life on Earth. "These explosions would have had a dramatic impact on the early Universe," says Ken Chen, post-doctoral researcher at the University of California at Santa Cruz and lead author of the study in The Astrophysical Journal. "The elements made inside the star would have been ejected in a supernova explosion." And a supermassive star would have produced large quantities of oxygen, carbon and metals. "These metals are important, as they form the building blocks for Earth," says Chen. "Even if a tiny amount didn't exist then everything would have been different." He is now working out what kind of metals and isotopes would have been formed -- thus explaining their role in the evolution of life. "Ultimately, this could improve our understanding of the Universe," he says.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
