Supernova Simulation

The collapse of massive star's core results in the formation of an outgoing spherical shock wave that eventually disrupts the entire star, giving rise to a supernova. Along the way the shock temporarily stalls and experiences the "stationary accretion shock instability" (SASI), which causes large deviations from spherical symmetry. This appears to be important to the supernova explosion mechanism, and may be responsible for spinning up the collapsed core---a nascent neutron star---into a pulsar. This image shows an exploratory view of a simulation run to ascertain the extent to which the SASI may generate magnetic fields: a volume rendering shows the fluid speed, and a sampling of fluid streamlines is colored by magnetic field strength. The simulation was run on Jaguar at NCCS with GenASiS, a multi-physics code under development for the simulation of astrophysical systems involving nuclear matter.
Visualization: Dave Pugmire (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). Simulation: Eirik Endeve, Christian Cardall, and Reuben Budiardja Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee, Knoxville)