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Associated Faculty and
Web Pages listed below.
Local Supernovae.
An active program of research is being pursued
on the study of supernovae near the Galaxy. The
Hubble Space Telescope is
being employed to investigate the continuuing antics of SN 1987A
as its ejecta plows into circumstellar gas. And HST has been asked
to respond quickly to new, bright supernovae 1993J, 1994I and 1998S
to study their early ultraviolet emission. The Fred L.
Whipple Observatory
devotes some of its time to collecting spectra and light curves
of Type I and Type II supernovae which can be used to determine
distances to the host galaxies and help refine determinations
of the expansion rate of the Universe.
Distant Supernovae.
Type Ia supernovae are intrinsically bright
and their luminosity can be determined from the shape of their
light curves. These properties make type Ia supernovae powerful
cosmological probes. The
MMT,
HST and
Keck
are employed to study
supernovae that exploded up to 7 billion years ago and map out
the history of the Universal expansion. The evolution of supernova
properties over comsic time is also an important area of study.
This research is laying the foundation for the
Next Generation
Space Telescope studies of supernovae in the early Universe.
SN remnants.
Supernova remnants contain shock-heated gas at a wide range of
temperatures, and they emit radiation from radio to X-ray wavelengths. Major
theoretical and observational efforts are being made to interpret the IR,
optical, UV and X-ray spectra in terms of the physical processes in
collisionless shock fronts, the shock parameters, and the evolution of
supernova remnants in a complex interstellar medium.
Supernovae and their Aftermath.
The collapse of a massive star and the
resulting supernova explosion are dramatic events which both complete the
stellar life cycle and regulate the structure of the Galaxy's interstellar
medium (ISM). However, we don't yet fully understand how stars explode;
constraints on the many complicated processes which occur during core
collapse are desperately needed. Since we rarely see a nearby star go
supernova, Harvard researchers are intensively studying the aftermaths of
supernova explosions, namely supernova remnants and young neutron stars,
and are using these objects to infer the properties of the supernova,
the progenitor star, and their surroundings. This work is providing new
insights into the micro- and macro-physics of the core-collapse process,
on the properties of supernova progenitors, and on the mechanisms which
produce the diversity we see in the resulting compact objects.
Associated Professors and Lecturers
-
A. Dalgarno,
R. Kirshner
Associated Web Pages
-
The Supernova Nexus home page
- The
High Z Supernovae Search
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Mid-Infrared Array Camera, MIRAC
- SPITZER Space Telescope,and
IRAC, its Infrared Camera
- Gaensler and Slane (GaS) Research Group
Associated Divisions
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High Energy Astrophysics,
Optical and Infrared,
Radio and
Geoastronomy
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