Skip to main content

Up Next

Back to Show
PBS Space Time

How Stars Destroy Each Other

Season 6 Episode 24

Our galaxy is full of dysfunctional stellar relationships. With more than half of all stars existing in binary orbits, it’s inevitable that many stellar remnants will end up in parasitic spirals with their partners. Today we’re going to look at the worst of these - from the novae produced by white dwarfs, to X-ray binaries created by neutron stars and black holes - and much weirder things besides.

Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
Season
What’s Your Brain’s Role in Creating Space & Time?
16:28
Physics is the business of figuring out the structure of the world. So are our brains.
Are Space and Time Real?
18:58
Does the next level of physics require us to do away with space and time?
How Does The Nucleus Hold Together?
14:28
Nuclei are held together by a quirk of nature, without which there’d be nothing.
How Does the Earth Really Move Through The Galaxy?
16:29
Your motion through the universe is extremely complicated, so let’s figure it out!
What If Alien Life Were Silcon-Based?
14:47
Could there silicon-based life beyond Earth?
What If The Universe Is Math?
17:33
If you believe the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis then yes. And so are you.
The New Science of Moon Formation
15:32
Learn more about the time when the moon didn’t exist, and then hours later suddenly did.
How Can Matter Be Both Liquid And Gas?
15:19
We explore Supercritical Fluids and how being "in the between" is their superpower.
How Are Quasiparticles Different From Particles?
15:31
These are particles you may not even heard of!
How To See Black Holes By Catching Neutrinos
12:53
We study the most bizarre known particles.
Are there Undiscovered Elements Beyond The Periodic Table?
16:13
We explore if it's really possible that new elements exist beyond the periodic table.
What If Humanity Is Among The First Spacefaring Civilization
15:30
Let’s see how if alien civilizations will ever reach us.
Active loading indicator