The Exploding Suns: The Secrets of the Supernovas

When the universe was born some 15 billion years ago, the "big bang" produced vast clouds of hydrogen and helium. Where did everything else come from? Supernovas, the huge unstable suns whose immense convulsions and titanic explosions are the largest and most shattering events in the universe. Untold trillions of these giant crucibles in space, erupting down the long reaches of time, are now known to have forged all the heavier elements that in turn formed the metals, the rocks, and--at least on…