AI Helps Astronomers Discover a New Type of Supernova
Astronomers have discovered what may be a massive star exploding while trying to swallow a black hole, offering an explanation for one of the strangest supernovae ever seen.
ExploreAstronomers have discovered what may be a massive star exploding while trying to swallow a black hole, offering an explanation for one of the strangest supernovae ever seen.
ExploreA stunning new image of a cosmic jet aimed directly at Earth, resembling the mythical “Eye of Sauron” in the distant Universe, has revealed the secret behind unexpectedly bright high-energy gamma-ray and neutrino emissions from a peculiar blazar, potentially solving a decade-long cosmic puzzle.
ExploreThe images feature data from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory along with a host of other NASA telescopes including the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and more.
ExploreHow can we expand the limits of human knowledge further into the unknown? The Center for Astrophysics is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory that’s designed to ask big questions about the universe, build the tools needed to answer them, and share the resulting discoveries with the world.
"The coming decade will be an extremely exciting time for astrophysics with the next generation space- and ground-based telescopes being built and coming on-line. The CfA's strength is the expertise of its scientists and researchers across the full electromagnetic spectrum from the X-rays through to the radio and sub-mm. This year, we are developing a 10-year scientific strategic plan to answer some of astronomy's biggest questions. Our work with the Smithsonian to develop nationwide education and outreach programs will bring astronomy to school kids across America."
Lisa Kewley, Director
Center for Astrophysics
When stars die, their fate is determined by how massive they were in life. Stars like our Sun leave behind white dwarfs: Earth-size remnants of the original star’s core. More massive stars explode as supernovas, while their cores collapse into neutron stars: ultra-dense, fast-spinning spheres made of the same ingredients as the nucleus of an atom. At least some neutron stars are pulsars, which produce powerful beams of light, which as they sweep across our view from Earth look like extremely regular flashes.
Small as they are, the deaths of these compact objects change the chemistry of the universe. The supernova explosions of white dwarfs and the collisions of neutron stars create new elements on the periodic table. For all these reasons, white dwarfs and neutron stars are important laboratories for physics at the extremes of strong gravity, density, and temperature.
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