Accretion Shock - Mean Atomic Weight
The velocity field at 0.751 s color coded by composition. The color
shows the logarithm mean atomic weight of the nuclei in the accreting
gas. Here that weight ranges from 1 (nucleons, blue) to 24 (oxygen
and silicon, red). The shock heats the infalling gas to temperatures
above 10 billion degrees causing heavy nuclei to disintegrate. The
dark blue inner torus is composed of free neutrons and protons.
Above picture: Gzipped Postscript
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Andrew MacFadyen-
andrew@ucolick.org - October 20, 1998
Kerr Hall 237B - (831)459-2774
Lick Observatory and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
UC Santa Cruz, CA 95064, U.S.A.