Science Talk for Families - Stars and Supernovae

In this Science for Families talk, Boaz Katz, John N. Bahcall Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences explores stars and supernovae. One of the most striking facts that we know about the cosmos is that most of the chemical elements that ­constitute matter, including our bodies, were produced inside stars and ­distributed by their explosions. It is amazing how much we know about these distant objects that look like dots in the sky. It is ­mind-­blowing that the distant stars and their ­explosions turned out to be crucial for our ­existence. Yet, even today, we do not ­understand exactly how they are born or how they explode.