Giant stars die violent deaths. After a life of several million years, they collapse into themselves and then explode in what is known as a supernova.
How they do it has been a mystery, until now. A new study and a three-dimensional model of a giant star’s last moments may bring some answers.
“This is something that has never been done before, says Sean Couch, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University. ”This is a significant step toward understanding how these stars blow up.”
Messy Details Matter
The ongoing problem is that, until now, researchers have only been able to do this in one-dimension. Nature, of course, is three-dimensional. “We were always using 1D models that don’t actually occur in nature,” Couch says.
We just couldn't get the darn things to blow up.
