Meet the Electron Capture Supernova
In looking at the ways in which stars die, there are two basic scenarios. Stars either just kind of stop and shrink in on themselves, or they explode in an element generating burst of nuclear reactions that we call a supernova. Up until today, there were two generally observed kinds of supernovae: exploding white dwarf stars, and exploding massive stars that leave behind either a compact object or nothing. Now, thanks to one weird object that exploded in 2018, a theorized third-form of supernovae — the Electron Capture Supernova — has been identified. With these single-star explosions, the core collapses for the most boring of reasons: Ionized atoms are pressured into taking back their electrons, and this collapses the core, making it possible for the outer layers to bounce out in a spectacular supernova. This work is published in Nature Astronomy and led by Daichi Hiramatsu.
The Death of a Normal Star, and the Detonation of its Ember
Stars like our Sun pass gently into the night. As they age, they loose the ability to burn the fuel in their cores as they run out of light weight materials like easy-to-fuse hydrogen. They are simply too small to produce the pressures and temperatures necessary to fuse heavier elements. As they peter out, their outer atmosphere (if there is any) drifts away, and the remaining core will (except for the smallest stars) collapse…
