Time Domain Astronomy
Our Work
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian astronomers are deeply involved in time domain research in many contexts:
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Detecting exoplanets using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and other observatories. TESS monitors a large section of the sky over long periods of time to detect fluctuations in starlight from the transit of planets.
NASA Prepares to Launch Next Mission to Search the Sky for New Worlds -
Watching for bursts of light corresponding to gravitational wave events. The collisions of neutron stars produce huge amounts of light as well as the disturbances in spacetime detected by LIGO. Using the Dark Energy Camera in Chile, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and other observatories, researchers identified the light from the explosion produced by colliding neutron stars in 2017, confirming the observation.
Astronomers See Light Show Associated With Gravitational Waves -
Identifying the most extreme supernovas. Some explosions of stars are much brighter and more violent than others, for reasons astronomers are just beginning to understand. Researchers perform follow-up observations on these supernovas using many types of light to learn how they explode and what kind of stars might be responsible.
Astronomers Discover ‘Heavy Metal’ Supernova Rocking Out -
Looking for mysterious transient events, to understand what’s causing them. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely powerful, short-lived bursts of radio waves. So far, these events don’t have an explanation astronomers can agree upon, if they’re all even caused by the same phenomena. Since it’s uncertain whether or not most FRBs repeat and can’t be predicted so far, astronomers have to look for them in data collected by watching the sky for other reasons.
Fast Radio Bursts May Be Firing Off Every Second -
Studying fluctuations in light from stars to understand the internal processes shaping them. Some of these fluctuations come from “starspots” — dark regions of intense magnetic activity — while others are caused by the vibrations known as starquakes. Flares from stars also produce large variations in light. All these changes take place over short periods of time, requiring vigilance to observe.
Proxima Centauri Might Be More Sunlike Than We Thought -
Tracking sudden variations in astronomical objects, including newborn stars. Protostars can change rapidly, since they are still collecting matter onto themselves. That leads to huge flares and other infant tantrums, which can have a profound impact on their surroundings. Using the Smithsonian’s Submillimeter Array (SMA) and other observatories, astronomers monitor these changes as they happen.
Protostar Blazes Bright, Reshaping Its Stellar Nursery
This X-ray image of the Crab Nebula from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is one part of a long-running set of observations to measure how this supernova remnant fluctuates over time.
The Evolving Sky
Time domain astronomy has its roots in antiquity, when ancient astronomers mapped the motion of the planets on the sky. They also distinguished the predictable cycles of planetary motion and eclipses from the things they couldn’t anticipate: the passage of comets or the sudden appearance of new “stars”, which we know today as variable stars, supernovas, and other transient phenomena.
Similarly, modern time domain astronomy involves both predictable and unpredictable changes in the sky:
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Monitoring stars for exoplanet transits: the small amount of light blocked as a planet crosses between its host star and us. The duration of the transit and time between transits tells us how long the planet’s year is. To discover transits, astronomers point observatories at a patch of the sky for a long period to see fluctuations — an ideal example of time domain research.
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Similarly, studying variations in stars themselves. Fluctuations in their magnetic fields or vibrations in their interiors produce changes that can only be noticed by observing the star over a period of time. That includes pulsations, flares, and other transient events.
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Tracking the infall of matter onto black holes and other compact objects produces jets and flares, which fluctuate measurably over time. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an array of many observatories dedicated to creating images of black holes at the center of the Milky Way and the nearby galaxy M87. The EHT also measures variations in light from matter orbiting the black hole, which provides a wealth of information about this extreme environment.
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Looking for new asteroids and comets within the Solar System.
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Detecting the most energetic events in the Universe, which burn brightly then fade away. This includes supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, and the bursts of light that happen when stars pass too close to a supermassive black hole and are torn apart by the gravitational tidal force.
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Observing the collisions of black holes and neutron stars, which are the source of gravitational waves. In addition, neutron star collisions — known as “kilonovas” — are explosive events producing light, which allows for multiple ways to study the event.
Some transient phenomena last fractions of a second, while others take decades or longer to change noticeably. Time domain astronomy encompasses all of these. Next-generation observatories such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) are designed to spot many transient events by watching large swaths of the sky again and again. These observations require new methods of data analysis, including machine learning and advanced statistical techniques.
Historical Data as Time Domain Astronomy
Researchers in the Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard (DASCH) project are engaged in digitizing photographic plates taken by astronomers from 1885 through 1992. These cover many different observatories mapping much of the sky. Comparing these historical images with each other and with more recent photographs allows astronomers to spot transient events from more than a century of observations.