Page 195 - The Periodic Table Book
P. 195

Helium makes WR 136 hot and bright. The star once burned   sending out a cloud of gas that spread around it. The star
           using hydrogen, like our Sun. Hydrogen atoms smashed   is producing a wind of electrified gases that hurtles out at
           together in the star’s core until they became helium atoms,   1,700 km (1,056 miles) every second. This wind continues to
           releasing energy in the process. However, the star ran out of   crash into the gas cloud, making it glow into the nebula we
           hydrogen about 200,000 years ago. It began smashing together   see. Eventually, WR 136 will run out of helium and its other
           helium atoms instead, and ballooned into a gigantic red star,   fuels, and explode into an enormous fireball called a supernova.





   192-193_Helium_DPS.indd   193                                                                                 02/12/16   6:52 pm
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