A Detailed Breakdown of Core Collapse Supernovae

The amount of energy produced from the collapsing core of a massive star is pretty inconceivable. The mechanism that facilitates the creation and distribution of this energy is just as wild. If you're like me you may have heard that Supernovae are the result of stellar masses "bouncing" off the incredibly dense proto-neutron star core. Like many things in this world, reality is far more complicated.

Special thanks to:
- Dr. David Vartanyan for supplying high def simulation footage and answering questions

- Prof. Robin Jeffries for answering some questions and clearing up some misconceptions I had about the the Direct Urca Process and the collapse mechanism

Sources/Further Reading:

- Supernova Explosions: David Branch • J. Craig Wheeler

- Understanding Stellar Evolution: Henny J.G.L.M. Lamers, Emily M. Levesque

- Exploding Superstars|Understanding Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts: Alain Mazure

[themathman]

Finally a science channel that actually explain things beyond surface level knowledge I already know

[dzfz]

This is incredible. I am a university lecturer (not in physics, though), and these videos are far clearer and better than anything I or my colleagues produce. Absolutely amazing resource - thank you for making this freely available to the world and the scientific teaching community. Every university should be donating to you for your efforts.

[blainelanders]

Even when explained so well, it is difficult to wrap my mind around the energy levels that are produced by these events.

[jc]

This is the first video that actually EXPLAINED how supernovae work in detail.

[davyan]

Thank you for reaching out! I had a blast (pun intended) chatting with you, and the video looks stellar.

[iamjimgroth]

This is exactly the level I want science videos to be at! Now give us a serious of videos about each detail in this process! :D

Edit: I realised "give us" sound a bit... Demanding. It wasn't. It was just me being eager for more. 😁

[HappyhipposMC]

It's amazing that the core can stop neutrinos, I've heard that you would need a sheet of lead 2 light years thick to do the same.

[jasuxi]

Honestly when i found this channel, i didn’t focus on subscriber number, toight it was 500k~1m base on the videos and themes, now here i am, with only 17 comments before me.

You deserve so much more.

[A_Saddler]

I've never seen such a well made explanation of the supernova process

[OrioPrisco]

just enough energy to send your memories back in time

[andru]

Happy to see "But Why?" subscription count growing. I was surprised such quality was not more popular when I found this channel.

[butsgalore]

It is the second of november 2021. This channel only has 122k subscribers at the moment.
I predict a growth of this channel in the order of magnitude of the core rebound due to the strong force!

[zacharyscott]

Mad respect for the quality of your videos!

[whatelseison]

Wow! Yep, that bogoggled my mind for sure! The direct Urca process answers a huge lingering question I had about all this. I'm gonna watch this video like 5 more times and be all over Wiki and google armed with powerful new search terms for weeks. Thanks for making this. I wish it were longer. I was glued to that simulation and your visuals (particularly the formation of the shell structure prior to the SN) were beautiful and elucidating as well. PBS Space Time better watch out 'cause you're crushing these topics harder than a collapsing core. I can say that because now I know roughly how hard that is. Bewm!

[seraphik]

"As the silicon layer burns above during the last day of a star's life..."

That sentence made me so existentially sad. To think even something as cosmically majestic as a star has a very last day of life...

[reddlesm]

This channel is so high in quality. Absolutely outstanding, deserves much more recognition

[FrenkMelk]

I really appreciate that we live in a time when we can watch videos like this that explain these processes in terms of their most elementary components. Visualizing these vast temperatures as exchange of elementary particles is exactly the kind of education Denise to be out there and not just a 'supernova is an exploding star' etc. MORE OF THIS PLEASE!

[houserhouse]

This is one of the best science explanations and visualizations I have ever seen. Bravo. YouTube, please recommend this to everyone. This is cutting edge science

[hgslawyer]

Fantastic, until today I thought the strong force rebound was the supernova. Thank you for the detailed explanation of what we now know.

[opiesmith]

Wow incredible. You did a fantastic job conceptually! I’ve never seen this process explained so thoroughly!