Stellar Collisions and Cosmic Catastrophes
Scientific Visualizations
Collisions of Main Sequence Stars in Globular Star Clusters
Simulations by Aaron Warren & James Lombardi
(Vassar College), Joshua Faber & Frederic Rasio (MIT)
Visualizations by James Lombardi & Aaron Warren (Vassar College),
Anne Springsteen (Wellesley College)
3 Visualizations
Unequal Mass Parent Stars: Density in Midplane Slice
Simulation and Visualization Details
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This movie uses colors to represent density along a slice through the centers
of a 0.6 and a 0.8 solar mass star that are colliding.
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The density of the gas is highest in white regions and decreases as the
color become yellow and then red.
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The larger parent star's radius is nearly one solar radius.
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The total elapsed time for such a collision in a globular cluster is 12
hours (nearly 100 times less than the computing time consumed).
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physics included: pressure gradient and gravitational forces; ideal gas
equation of state.
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employed a parallelized Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code with
105,000 particles
Image
Click on image for a larger version
Movie
Equal Mass Parent Stars: Density in Midplane Slice
Simulation and Visualization Details
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This movie uses colors to represent density along a central slice through
two colliding 0.6 solar mass stars.
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The density of the gas is highest in white regions and decreases as the
color become yellow and then red.
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Each parent star has a radius which is half of our Sun's radius.
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The merger remnant is rapidly rotating.
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physics included: pressure gradient and gravitational forces; ideal gas
equation of state.
-
employed a parallelized Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code with
90,000 particles
Image
Click on image for a larger version
Movie
Equal Mass Parent Stars: Fluid Particles near Midplane
Slice
Simulation and Visualization Details
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This movie displays those fluid particles near a central slice through
two colliding 0.6 solar mass stars.
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Throughout the simulation, fluid particles from parent star 1 are red,
while fluid particles from star 2 are yellow.
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Each parent star has a radius which is half of our Sun's radius.
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The total elapsed time for such a collision in a globular cluster is 12
hours.
-
The resulting spiral pattern is due to the gas tending to sort itself by
values of specific "entropy."
-
physics included: pressure gradient and gravitational forces; ideal gas
equation of state.
-
employed a parallelized Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code with
90,000 particles
Image
Click on image for a larger version
Movie
Copyright & Credits
All usage must be cleared with the respective authors, as listed in
the credits. This includes posting on other web
sites and any other electronic, print, or media distribution.
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Last modified: May 19, 2000
