Supernovas & Quasars
Two very powerful explosions in Space!
Quasars
The brightest celestial bodies in the universe. Quasars are the "lightspeed" jets on either side of a supermassive black hole. They are from 10 to 100,000 times brighter than the Milky Way Galaxy thus we are able to see some with the naked eye. Quasars also have similar things to them elsewhere in the universe. One is called a Seyfert galaxy which is less powerful, and a Blazar which is far more powerful. They are all classified as an AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei).
Supernovas
Supernovas are stars that have reached the end of their life and have exploded. The brightness of them can sometimes outshine galaxies. When a star runs out of hydrogen and helium fuel but will have enough mass to fuse carbon, heavy elements build up and the star implodes leaving only the core. Then the core becomes hotter and denser and eventually expels all of its matter in a very bright explosion. An ultradense neutron star is left in its wake. A supernova occurs every 50 years on average in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way.
Comparisons
- Are explosions in space
- Can be brighter than a galaxy
- Can be seen by the naked eye
- Very powerful
- Have different categories
Contrasts
- Quasars are much brighter
- Quasars are more powerful
- Supernovas are exploding stars, quasars are bright bursts of energy from black holes
- Supernovas are an explosion of heavy elements, quasars are various particles being accelerated away from a black hole at the speed of light