Melody Judilla Comps Presentation
Friday, April 3rd 2015
3:30 pm
Olin 141
Explosions in Space: Examining Core-Collapse Supernovae
Supernova explosions are grand and extraordinarily energetic explosions that mark the death of a massive star. There are two dierent types of supernovae based on their underlying explosion mechanism, but I focus on core-collapse supernovae. Stars that are at least 8 times the size of the Sun use nuclear fusion sequences to build layers of elements, such as H, He, O, Ne, until the star produces an iron core. At that point, the star’s temperature, density, and pressure are so great that the star becomes extremely unstable and collapses inwardly. The core then releases a shockwave that ripples through the rest of the star, resulting in an epic explosion on the order of 10 51 erg. However, the exact details and processes that enable such an explosion are highly uncertain. While scientists are actively pursuing research on explosion mechanism, there is also observational data post-explosion that helps our understanding of supernovae, such as neutrinos, remnants, neutron stars and black holes. This paper provides an overview of the dierent types of core-collapse supernovae, various proposals for explosion mechanisms, and post-explosion remains and signals.