Letters to the Editor
Readers question supernova physics
Your comments on the February 18, 2017, issue of Science News
Supernova surprise
Astronomers continue to learn a lot from supernova 1987A, which burst onto the scene 30 years ago. Thanks to new detectors that can pick up neutrino signals and even gravitational waves, scientists will be ready when the next nearby star explodes, Emily Conover reported in “Waiting for a supernova” (SN: 2/18/17, p. 24).
Steve Capps wondered how neutrinos inside an exploding star could push a shock wave toward the star’s surface to make it go supernova. “That seems to be some fairly potent interaction by the neutrinos,” Capps wrote. “In many other articles, neutrinos are described as
