the “shock breakout” -- is illustrated in this video animation. The cartoon
video begins with a view of a red supergiant star that is 500 hundred times
bigger and 20,000 brighter than our sun. When the star’s internal furnace
can no longer sustain nuclear fusion its core collapses under the force of
gravity. A shockwave from the implosion rushes outward through the star’s
layers. The shockwave initially breaks through the star’s visible surface
as a series of finger-like plasma jets. Only 20 minute later the full fury
of the shockwave reaches the surface and the doomed star blasts apart as
a supernova explosion. This animation is based on photometric observations
made by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. By closely monitoring the star KSN
2011d, located 1.2 billion light-years away, Kepler caught the onset of
the early flash and subsequent explosion. Credits: Credit: NASA Ames,
STScI/G. Bacon
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/Keple ... oding-star
Michele Johnson
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-6982
[email protected]
- What A Sparkler!
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