MPEG video of the process of gas ejection by supernovae:
small format (0.5MB)
large format (1.9MB)
Explanation
Supernova is an enormous explosion of a star, equivalent to billions of billions of billions of nuclear bombs, at the end of star's life. Only very massive stars, ten times more massive than Sun, explode as supernovae. Sun will never explode. It is a grand death for a star: to die blasting away everything that happens to be around!
This movie shows the evolution of a small galaxy in two simulated universes: the one on the right resembles the real universe; the one on the left has no supernovae in it. There is no way one can switch off supernovae in the real universe, but one can do it in a simulated one! For the universe inside a computer, you are a God!
The movie shows the evolution of the gas density at the bottom and the gas temperature at the top. Dark blue means low density and temperature, and pink means very high density and temperature. White symbols show stars in both galaxies. In a realistic universe (on the right), supernovae blast away all gas from a poor galaxy, whereas in a universe without supernova (on the left), the life is dull (but safe!)