Massive, Cataclysmic Star Death Now Available in 3-D
Simulated 3-D Star Death About 0.5 seconds after initial core ignition, the supernova blasts outward in an uneven, lumpy manner. The whitish, transparent outer layer is the blast front. Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics Massive stars live for a very long time, so when their lives finally do come to an end they like to go out with a bang -- a bang that can become brighter than the whole galaxy for a time. Astronomers have studied and modeled these supernovae for decades, but for the first time researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics have created a 3-D computer sim of a star undergoing core collapse over a timescale of hours after the initial explosion. This wasn't just an exercise in modeling one of the more sensational events in the cosmic catalogue. Researchers wanted to know why supernova blasts are uneven, with some elements like nickel asymmetrically blasting outward...