Comments on: Wired: Best science visualisation videos http://sarahaskew.net/2009/08/20/wired-best-science-visualisation-videos/ sarahaskew.net Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:05:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: sarah http://sarahaskew.net/2009/08/20/wired-best-science-visualisation-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-617 sarah Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:34:59 +0000 http://sarahaskew.net/?p=1192#comment-617 Well first of all this work was done in 2007 - so right now it's not "new". At the time, if I understand it correctly, it marked the first time that a Type Ia supernova was modelled in 3 dimensions, without having to insert a detonation event into the simulation code. When a white dwarf begins to explode, its material begins to burn from the inside out (the deflagration phase). As this burning reaches the dwarf's surface (in about 1 second!), the actual explosion, or detonation, occurs. Earlier 3D simulations were unable to reproduce the transition from deflagration to detonation in a natural way, i.e. by the physical conditions of the simulations itself. Modellers had to tell the code in an ad-hoc way that a detonation would take place. This simulation was the first to do this fully in 3D. There are several models for how this kind of supernova actually proceeds, and this simulation follows the scenario of a gravitationally bound detonation. The astro-ph paper I linked to above explains what this entails. An earlier paper on this model is <a href="http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1538-4357/612/1/L37" rel="nofollow"> here</a>. Well first of all this work was done in 2007 – so right now it’s not “new”. At the time, if I understand it correctly, it marked the first time that a Type Ia supernova was modelled in 3 dimensions, without having to insert a detonation event into the simulation code. When a white dwarf begins to explode, its material begins to burn from the inside out (the deflagration phase). As this burning reaches the dwarf’s surface (in about 1 second!), the actual explosion, or detonation, occurs.

Earlier 3D simulations were unable to reproduce the transition from deflagration to detonation in a natural way, i.e. by the physical conditions of the simulations itself. Modellers had to tell the code in an ad-hoc way that a detonation would take place. This simulation was the first to do this fully in 3D.

There are several models for how this kind of supernova actually proceeds, and this simulation follows the scenario of a gravitationally bound detonation. The astro-ph paper I linked to above explains what this entails. An earlier paper on this model is here.

]]> By: eage1879 http://sarahaskew.net/2009/08/20/wired-best-science-visualisation-videos/comment-page-1/#comment-594 eage1879 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:23:49 +0000 http://sarahaskew.net/?p=1192#comment-594 So what is new from the simulation? So what is new from the simulation?

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