The Core of a Collapsing, Rapidly Spinning Massive Star (IMAGE)

California Institute of Technology

The Core of a Collapsing, Rapidly Spinning Massive Star

Caption

This image shows the inner regions of a collapsing, rapidly spinning massive star. The colors indicate entropy, which roughly corresponds to heat: Red regions are very hot, while blue regions are cold. The black arrows indicate the direction of the flow of stellar material. The two white curves with black outlines indicate the neutrino (top) and gravitational-wave (bottom) signals. This frame shows a simulation about 10.5 milliseconds after the stellar core has become a dense proto-neutron star. A video of the simulation can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdZOeMadCxU.

Credit

Simulation: Christian Ott, Visualization: Steve Drasco

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