A low energy core-collapse supernova without a hydrogen envelope

Understand

The final fate of massive stars depends on many factors, including mass, rotation rate, magnetic fields and metallicity.

• Theory suggests that some massive stars (initially greater than 25-30 solar masses) end up as Wolf-Rayet stars which are deficient in hydrogen because of mass loss through strong stellar winds.
• The most massive of these stars have cores which may form a black hole and theory predicts that the resulting explosion produces ejecta of low kinetic energy, a faint optical display and a small mass fraction of radioactive nickel(1,2,3).
• An alternative origin for low energy supernovae is the collapse of the oxygen-neon core of a relatively lowmass star (7-9 solar masses) through electron capture(4,5).