The Cataclysmic Death of Stars
Researchers found that less than a thousandth of a second after the shock wave is generated, a
flood of tiny, nearly massless particles called neutrinos escapes from the center of the star. The
neutrinos, born in the collapsing core, drain energy from the shock wave. The shock stalls, and--
at least in the computer--the supernova is a dud.
Now Burrows and his colleagues are working with a computer model powerful enough to
simulate how the core shakes and churns during the collapse, and they've finally seen how a
collapsing star could turn around and explode. The turbulent infalling gas starts shaking the core,
causing it to pulsate. Raining down from the star's outer layers, the gas wraps around the core,
dancing over its surface and penetrating its depths.
"The core is oscillating, and the stuff falling onto the core is exciting it," says Burrows. In about
eight-tenths of a second, the oscillations are so intense they send out sound waves. The waves
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