Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 198 Supernova

Scientific research is so strange.

In most other fields, mistakes usually mean huge losses, but in science, mistakes usually mean progress.

Li Qingsong immediately mobilized some of his brain power and, together with some blueprint scientists, devoted himself to further research on this strange phenomenon.

In most of the more violent astronomical phenomena, neutrinos always escape first - because neutrinos have higher penetrating power.

Imagine a bomb with an extremely tough shell. It takes time for the internal explosive energy to accumulate to a certain level before the shell is broken and the explosion can be seen by outside observers.
However, neutrinos can take the lead in penetrating the outer shell and reach the outside world by relying on their stronger penetrating ability when the explosion is brewing but has not yet actually occurred.

In this way, external observers can use neutrinos to determine whether the bomb will explode in the future.

Obviously, if a neutrino that meets the criteria is observed, the bomb will explode in the future. If it is not observed, it will not explode.

In this way, after observing the neutrinos and determining the direction and coordinates, Li Qingsong could mobilize the astronomical telescope in advance to aim at that direction and wait for the explosion to occur, so as to fully observe the entire explosion and obtain complete and detailed data.

But this time, Li Qingsong was disappointed again.

He still hadn't found an optical counterpart.

"That shouldn't be the case... Neutrino radiation of this magnitude must be accompanied by a massive release of energy. It's impossible for it to not have an optical counterpart..."

Li Qingsong was puzzled.

At the same time, after further observation and analysis of these neutrino data, Li Qingsong discovered more strange things.

First of all, Li Qingsong has determined that these neutrinos should have originated from a Type II supernova explosion.

There are many types of supernova explosions.

There are stellar supernova explosions: when a massive star reaches the end of its life, its core fuses iron elements and accumulates to a certain level, the core will suddenly lose its supporting force.

The gravity of a massive star is incredibly strong. Such a massive mass is only kept from collapsing by the powerful fusion energy in its core.

The fusion of iron does not release energy, but absorbs energy instead.

At this moment, the massive star itself is under such great pressure, and its core has suddenly lost its support due to the fusion of iron. What will happen?
Obviously, all external mass will collapse rapidly inward under the influence of its own gravity, and the speed can even reach hundreds of thousands of kilometers per second.

Such powerful kinetic energy will instantly compress the core of the star into a dense star, a neutron star.

The mass falling from the outside will be rebounded by the huge internal pressure and suddenly impact outward.

As a result, the entire star will be blown to pieces, and most of the energy that makes up the star will be thrown into the universe, leaving nothing behind except the dense neutron star at the core.

If the star is larger, a black hole may even form in its core.

This is a Type II supernova explosion, also known as a core-collapse supernova explosion.

Depending on the type of explosion, stellar supernova explosions can be divided into several categories.

In addition to stellar supernova explosions, there is another type of supernova explosion based on white dwarfs.

A white dwarf is also a compact star. A typical neutron star has a radius of only 10 kilometers, but a mass of about 1.4 times that of the sun.

Just imagine how high the density of a sphere with a radius of only 1.4 kilometers would be if the mass of 10 suns were compressed into it.

Compared to neutron stars, white dwarfs have lower mass and density, but they are still far greater than any common objects and are equally incredible.

A typical white dwarf has a radius of about 6700 kilometers, comparable to that of the Earth, but a mass comparable to that of the Sun.

This is equivalent to compressing the volume of the sun by more than a million times. You can imagine how high its density and gravity are, and how extreme its properties are.

Type Ia supernovae originate from white dwarfs.

If a white dwarf has a companion star, there is a certain probability that the white dwarf will continuously plunder the mass of the companion star, accumulate it on its own surface, and increase its own mass.

As the mass increases, the internal pressure and temperature will increase.

A white dwarf is typically composed of elements like carbon and oxygen. Its own mass, temperature, and pressure wouldn't be sufficient to support the fusion of these elements. But now, the mass from the companion star raises its temperature and pressure, allowing the carbon and oxygen elements to fuse.

The fusion of carbon and oxygen elements will further increase the temperature and pressure inside the white dwarf, making the fusion rate faster.

This is nothing. For ordinary stars, when the internal temperature and pressure are high, it will obviously begin to expand, thereby lowering the internal temperature and pressure, and thus achieving a stable, dynamic equilibrium state.

But this mechanism breaks down on white dwarfs.

Because white dwarfs are too dense and hard, while ordinary stars are like balloons that can easily grow or shrink, white dwarfs are like rocks that cannot grow larger and thus reduce their internal temperature and pressure.

The consequences can be imagined.

The carbon-oxygen fusion will become faster and faster, and eventually get out of control. Eventually, all the carbon and oxygen elements that make up the entire white dwarf will fuse at the same time, releasing energy at the same time.

As a result, the white dwarf, which was equivalent to an entire sun, suddenly exploded under this uncontrolled and violent energy release, and the entire planet was blown to pieces.

This is a Type Ia supernova.

There are many different types of supernova explosions, but one thing is certain: no matter what type of supernova explosion, it will release energy that is so intense that it is unimaginable, which can be called the most violent energy release process in the universe.

The energy of a supernova explosion will pour into all surrounding space in a 360-degree, non-dead angle. The energy it releases in just a few seconds is even more than the total energy released by the sun in its entire life cycle of about 100 billion years.

When a supernova explosion occurs, in those few seconds, the light of hundreds of billions of stars in the entire Milky Way will be temporarily obscured by it.

However, Li Qingsong observed such a violent explosion twice in a row in the same place, and neither time did he find an optical counterpart.

It seems that these two supernova explosions were "dim" and did not emit light.

But how is this possible?

Also, the number of neutrinos seemed wrong.

Li Qingsong confirmed that the radiation source was a Type II supernova explosion through the energy level of neutrinos, but the number he observed was too small, far less than the normal supernova explosion pattern.

This seems to mean... that in this supernova explosion, only a small portion of its energy was released through neutrinos?
(End of this chapter)