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A S T R O N O M YSupernova
Slice
A door-sized experiment models
massive stellar blastsWhen a star explodes at the end of its life-
time, it smears the elements forged in its
heart across vast stretches of space. The
results, dramatic designs of gas and dust
known as supernova remnants, contain
structures that have long puzzled research-
ers. But supernovae occur in the Milky Way
only once or twice a century, often without
warning, making it difficult to study their
initial moments. Researchers have mod-
eled these events through simulations, but
computing limitations require them to
make assumptions about the finer details.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of
Technology hope to change that with a new
experiment to look at how gases in a super-
nova might mix, confirming and helping to
refine previous simulations. Their wedge-
shaped apparatus—which they sometimes
call “supernova pizza”—is about four feet
wide at the top and roughly the thickness
of a double door, enclosing two separated,
inert gases. Its shape lets it re-create physi-
cal dynamics as they would occur within
a slice of a cylinder or sphere in space. The
team sets off commercial detonators at
the point of the wedge, which mimics the
center of a supernova, and the blast waves
mix the two gases. A high-speed camera
snaps images of the process every 0.1 milli-
second, revealing the equivalent of roughly
the first hour after a supernova explosion.
The researchers described the experiment
in June in the Astrophysical Journal.
NASA, JPL AND CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYThe team observed how small pertur-© 2020 Scientific American