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ANSWERS: 2
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depending on the size of the star, it can do both when it dies. The smallest stars will simply implode (collapse) when they die and become a white dwarf. If the star is about the size of the Sun, then its core will collapse down into a white dwarf while the outer layers detach from the core and expand outward forming a planetary nebula. (This is not a violent enough process to be called an explosion.) Finally, if the star is eight times the mass of our sun, then when it dies, its core will collapse so suddenly and violently that it will create a shock wave that will move outward through the rest of the star causing it to explode. This is a supernova and it creates either a neutron star or a black hole with a rapidly expanding nebula.
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A supernova is when a star is at the end of its life and runs out of hydrogen, so it explodes and can become a white dwarf,a pulsar or a deadly gamma ray.
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