This is a computer simulation of a supernova event, the moments when a massive star collapses in on itself to evolve into a neutron star. The violent and knobbly shock wave from the collapse expands out in a fraction of a second, with the coldest gas in the model colored blue and the hottest colored red. Ejected stellar material moves away from the core at speeds that can reach almost 19,000 miles per second.
The simulation was created in 2012 by the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Project. Now, direct observations of a supernova called 1987A using NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array has confirmed a detail found in the model–that the collapse leads to a lopsided ejection of debris in one direction and the stellar core into another.
Full article:
http://www.caltech.edu/news/lopsided-star-explosion-holds-key-other-supernova-mysteries-46724
Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxGajNoPz8c
#nasa #caltech #supernova #space
If a cell exploded, is the effect similar (albeit with different forces involved)? The more I think about it, the more I wonder if stars (nuclei), planets (electrons), solar systems (atoms) and galaxies (molecules) are part of one super-massive entity that we cannot comprehend. Or even part of ourselves in a weird cosmic loop
ReplyDeleteSam Collett
ReplyDeleteabsolutely... absolutely...
I thought it was a cell dividing.
ReplyDeleteEnormous amounts of matter accelerated to .1c in mere milliseconds.
ReplyDeleteI F-ing love astronomy.
From https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/ -- which is brighter, the sun going supernova as seen from Earth, or the explosion of a nuclear weapon pressed against your face? The supernova, by a billion times. So much energy.
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