In a massive-star supernova explosion, a stellar core collapses to form a neutron star roughly 10 kilometers in radius. the gravitational potential energy released in such a collapse is approximately equal to g m2/r, where m is the mass of the neutron star, r is its radius, and g is the gravitational constant. using this formula, estimate the amount of gravitational potential energy released in a massive -star supernova explosion. how does it compare with the amount of energy radiated by the sun during its entire main-sequence lifetime?

The concept used to solve this problem is gravitational potential Energy.

The equation is given by,

Where U is the gravitational potential energy

M is the mass of object

R is radius (10000m)

G is the unviersal gravitational constant

We know that the mass of neutron star is 1.4 times the mass of the sun.

It is known that the mass of sun is

Replacing the values in our equation we have:

Therefore the energy released in a massive-star supernova explosion is

To estimate the second point we know that the Total Energy by the Sun is

We can calculate the ratio between a supernova explosion and our entire main-sequence lifetime energy of the sun.

Therefore the amount of energy radiated by a supernova explosion is around times more than the entire main-sequence lifetime energy of the sun.