  Electron captures on nuclei play an important role in the collapse of stellar
core in the stages leading to a type-II supernova. Recent observations of
subluminous Type II-P supernovae (e.g. 2005cs, 2003gd, 1999br) were able to
rekindle the interest in 8 - 10 which develop O+Ne+Mg cores. We used the
proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation (pn-QRPA) theory to
calculate the B(GT) strength for 24Mg \rightarrow 24Na and its associated
electron capture rates for incorporation in simulation calculations. The
calculated rates, in this letter, have differences with the earlier reported
shell model and Fuller, Fowler, Newman (hereafter F2N) rates. We compared
Gamow-Teller strength distribution functions and found fairly good agreement
with experiment and shell model. However, the GT centroid and the total GT
strength, which are useful in the calculation of electron capture rates in the
core of massive pre-supernova stars, lead to the enhancement of our rate up to
a factor of four compared to the shell model rates at high temperatures and
densities.
