Core-Collapse Supernovae & Stellar Remnants: Structures & Vocabulary

Core-collapse supernovae occur when a massive star builds a central core that can no longer support itself. Collapse drives the core to nuclear densities, forms a neutron star or black hole, and powers an explosion that ejects much of the overlying star at thousands of kilometers per second.

Iron fusion cannot provide net energy under ordinary stellar conditions, while electron captures and photodisintegration reduce support as the core grows unstable. Gravity causes catastrophic collapse; the inner core stiffens near nuclear density and an outward shock forms. Neutrino heating and multidimensional fluid instabilities contribute to reviving and driving the explosion.

Supernova light curves, spectra, expanding remnants, radioactive decay signatures, compact remnants, and the neutrino burst from SN 1987A all support the core-collapse model. Element distributions in remnants map material synthesized before and during explosion.

Before collapse, an evolved star can contain an iron-group core surrounded by shells of silicon, oxygen, neon, carbon, helium, and hydrogen or stripped layers. The remnant becomes a neutron star or, for sufficiently massive cores, a black hole.