A new component of gravity, the scalar gravitational field, may explain the mechanism that allows the immense explosions of type II supernovae to take place. However, this could happen only through a dynamic process - parametric instability - that dates back to work by Lord Rayleigh in the 1880s.When the central core of a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel (having been converted mainly into iron), it collapses under its own weight in less than a second into an extremely dense neutron star, releasing an enormous amount of gravitational energy.
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