Supernova Movies

(You can download QuickTime player here if you need.)

A radiation-diffusion/hydrodynamic simulation of the early development in 2D of the explosion of the core of a massive star. The resulting supernova is dominated by instabilities and explodes as fingers into the outer burning shells. The blue-green interface marks the silicon-oxygen boundary of the progenitor star that is collapsing in to meet the supernova shock, which then encompasses it. The scale is 2500 kilometers.

View the movie

The collapse of a rapidly rotating massive star core. Due to strong centrifugal effects, this core bounces, then oscillates, after sending out a shock wave. The color map depicts the distribution of the electron fraction (Y_e) and implies interesting asymmetries in the neutron-richness of the ejecta after explosion that may bear on the character of the r-process. The scale is 600 kilometers.

View the movie

A representative 2D multi-group, flux-limited diffusion rad/hydro simulation of the collapse of a rotating Chandrasekhar core. The color map shows the electron fraction (Y_e) and the vectors are the electron neutrino flux vectors at an energy of 13.9 MeV. This is part of the first series of simulations done in the field of supernova theory that follows the collapse, bounce, and shock formation with a multi-D radiation field and determines the angular anisotropy of the neutrino fluxes.

View the movie