MPEG Movies

Movies from ``On the Nature of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions'' (Ap.J., 450, 830 1995) by Adam Burrows, John Hayes and Bruce Fryxell

cfrac.mpeg
Cfrac-mpeg displays the carbon mass fraction evolution in and about the convective oxygen shell of a SN 1987A progenitor model. Convective currents impacting onto convectively stable media generate gravity waves, which then transport composition, but little energy, across the boundary between convectively stable and unstable regions. Mixing driven by plumes is evident as the carbon mixes within the oxygen shell. Even more important is that the energy from carbon burning exceeds that from oxygen burning by a factor of 50 by the end of the simulation.
dpert.mpeg
Dpert-mpeg displays the density perturbations in and about the convective oxygen shell of a SN 1987A progenitor model. The color bar on the right gives the scale of the perturbations. Such perturbations are needed to explain Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, which would mix 56Ni outward in a forthcoming SN. This effect has been used with some success in explaining the light output behavior of SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The amplitude and scale length distribution of these perturbations is the result of convective currents impacting onto convectively stable media, generating gravity waves.