Astronomers have tried to explode a virtual Earth-sized star in a 3-D simulation model.
Finally these researchers have succeeded in developing a 3D simulation that has revealed the step-by-step process that fuels such an explosion.
Such stars are known as white dwarfs and are about the size of Earth and weigh as much as the Sun. When they are ending their lives, they do it in a spectacular show. When the core of these white dwarfs begins to burn out they explode and the explosion is called Type1a Supernova. This supernova is responsible for most of the iron in the Universe.
In prior models astronomers had to manually tell the computer model to detonate the star, which meant that the model was not that right. Some University of Chicago scientists generated neutral detonations but the model was 2D.
Some researchers had also stated that the model cannot work in a 3D environment.
The simulation has confirmed what all astronomers believed. The stars detonate in a supersonic process resembling the combustion in a diesel engine. In a petrol engine a spark is required to ignite the fuel, whereas in a diesel engine the fuel starts to burn due to compression.
The simulation took 58,000 hours to develop and used the power of more than 700 computer processors, but the actual process from start to finish played out in three seconds.
Click on the image above to check out the video. The video showed a complex set of events that concluded with a bang.
Via: MSNBC
