What imbalance immediately triggers the catastrophic implosion known as gravitational collapse in a dying star?
Answer
The cessation of outward thermal and radiation pressure that counteracted gravity
Gravitational collapse begins when the star exhausts its nuclear fuel, causing the outward pressure generated by fusion to cease, thereby allowing the relentless inward tug of gravity to dominate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What imbalance immediately triggers the catastrophic implosion known as gravitational collapse in a dying star?In stars up to about eight times the Sun's mass, what physical mechanism usually halts the initial gravitational collapse to form a stable remnant?What is the term for the process where intense core pressure forces electrons into protons, creating neutrons and releasing neutrinos?Which threshold determines whether a collapsing core stabilizes as a neutron star or continues collapsing toward a black hole?If a collapsing core remnant's mass is between approximately 1.4 and 3 solar masses, what object is formed?What characteristic allows astronomers to detect rapidly spinning neutron stars as pulsars?What phenomenon is responsible for dispersing heavy elements across the interstellar medium following a core-collapse supernova?What is the physical structure defining the boundary around a black hole from which escape is impossible?What causes the material in a neutron star to achieve such incredible density?Besides the visible supernova blast, what other type of disturbance created by the collapse can be directly detected on Earth using instruments like LIGO?