Scientists create SuperNova in a Jar!

Scientists and Physicists colaborating from the University of Toronto and Rutgers University claimed to have recreated the supernova in a jar! While studying the effects of mixing two reactive chemicals, the physicists discovered a phenomena which mimics the explosion of a supernova but in a miniature version.

The reaction creates a self-sustaining vortex ring without any additional catalysts. Although the reactions occur around us in our daily life, they have never been seen with such an ability to study them in great detail. Stephen Morris who is a physics professor at University of Toronto said, “We created a smaller version of this process by triggering a special chemical reaction in a closed container that generates similar plumes and vortex rings.”

Two fluids with different chemical compositions mix, it results in an instability which in a non-reactive fluid medium will craete a plume as it rises through the less buoyant fluid. Physicists said that when two reactive fluids are passed through one another, the results are less predictable.

Michael Rogers was the lead for the experiment doing his PhD research said, “A supernova is a dramatic example of this kind of self-sustaining explosion in which gravity and buoyancy forces are important effects. We wanted to see what the liquid motion would look like in such a self-stirred chemical reaction. The connection with supernovae comes because both involve reacting bubbles that rise under gravity but ours are pretty gentle and much smaller than real supernovae, obviously. The relevant form of supernova is a type Ia, in which a compact white dwarf star suddenly detonates due to a flame bubble nucleation process.”

The flame ball infact is buried deep inside the white dwarf and is lighter than its surroundings and rises rapidly creating a plume with a smoke ring. The study will be published in the December Physics Review E.