ScienceSpaceFlavor-changing 'ghost particles' may reveal which stars go supernova - and which turn into black holes
A new study finds that the way neutrinos switch flavours inside a collapsing star may determine whether it explodes as a supernova or collapses into a black hole.
Neutrinos may help explain which stars explode and which turn into black holes.
Researchers have found that neutrino flavour oscillation, the ability of these ghost particles to switch type, may decide whether a dying star explodes or becomes a black hole.
Study co-author Mariam Gogilashvili from the Niels Bohr Institute said neutrinos carry away about 99 per cent of the energy released when a star's core collapses, so small changes in their behaviour matter enormously.
The findings could also help explain why astronomers have detected fewer supernovas than expected, and shed light on how dying stars seeded the universe with the matter that makes up planets and people.
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