Supernovas are such massive violent explosions that they can create and change the very nature of elements, scattering them into the universe to be absorbed by new planets, stars, and even life itself.
That all sounds great — unless it happens in your cosmic backyard. If our own Sun were to go supernova, it would certainly take Earth along with it.
But could our Sun ever go supernova? The easy answer is no, because it lacks either of the two main conditions that can cause a supernova.
“Our Sun can’t go supernova because it is too small to have its core collapse, and it doesn't have a binary companion to steal matter from when the core of ash is left over as a white dwarf,” says Andy Howell, an astronomer at Los Cumbres Observatory in California.
