ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Shell collapsar

Okay, imagine you have a big ball made out of gas and dust swirling around in space. This ball is called a star. Now imagine that this star is really, really big, like billions of times bigger than our sun. This means that it is super hot and creates a lot of energy.

Sometimes, these huge stars run out of fuel and start to collapse in on themselves. When this happens, the star's outer layer gets squeezed so tightly that it can't resist gravity anymore and collapses inwards. This process releases a huge amount of energy in the form of light and heat, which causes the star to explode.

Now, a shell collapsar is a special type of star that goes through this process. Instead of exploding all at once, the shell collapsar's outer layer collapses inwards and bounces back outwards, kind of like a rubber ball bouncing off the ground. This bouncing creates a shockwave that travels through the star, causing it to explode in a much more controlled way.

Scientists are really interested in studying shell collapsars because they can teach us a lot about how stars form, evolve, and die. They also create lots of heavy elements like gold and platinum, which are really useful for technology and industry. So even though they might sound scary, shell collapsars are actually really cool and exciting to learn about!