Tag: supernovas
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Blowing up high-mass stars with low-mass neutrinos
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Low-mass particles that make high-mass stars go boom Simulations are key to showing how neutrinos help stars go supernova. For Symmetry Magazine: When some stars much more massive than…
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Supernovas: mysterious and lumpy space explosions
Nearly every atom of your body was forged in a supernova explosion and dispersed into space. But how do massive stars explode? The details are complicated, pushing the limits of computer simulations and our ability to observe with telescopes. In the absence of very close-by events, the best data come from supernova remnants: the still-glowing…
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The week in review (October 13 – 19)
I’m at GeekGirlCon this weekend, so I’m busy with non-writing activities as part of the DIY Science Zone. Thanks to our Fearless Leader Dr. “Nick Fury” Rubidium for putting our part of the event together! Where Nature Hides the Darkest Mystery of All (Nautilus): Even though there’s no solid barrier, the event horizon of a…
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Baby boom-ers could be a new type of white dwarf supernova
White dwarf supernovas—more officially known as type Ia supernovas—are important to cosmologists because they all explode in very similar ways. That means they can be used to measure distances to faraway galaxies. However, a peculiar type of supernova, first identified in 2002, has a lot in common with type Ia explosions, but with a lot…
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Supernovas and Marvin the Martian
Supernovas are some of the most violent phenomena in the cosmos, but we’re in no immediate danger from one. However, astronomers would really really really like one to go off relatively nearby during our lifetimes, since we would learn a lot from observing one. My latest piece at Ars Technica is a gallery showing some…
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Weird supernova marks the spot of a violent outburst…and black hole
Any core-collapse supernova—the explosion of a massive star—is by nature powerful, destructive, and rare. The really dramatic supernovas have the extra effect of exploding in a non-spherical way, beaming a lot of their matter and energy along an axis. When Earth is aligned with those beams, we see the supernova as a gamma ray burst…
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Radioactive titanium powers a supernova afterglow
(Yes, I’m inundating you all with writing. It’s a busy week, and I still have a few more things forthcoming to share with you.) Supernova 1987a was the death of a massive blue star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the satellite galaxies of our Milky Way. Because of its relative proximity and occurrence…
Bowler Hat Science 