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NASA is scheduled to launch an orbiting X-ray satellite on Wednesday, June 13, that will open a new window on the universe, allowing scientists to probe the roiling edges of black holes, exploding stars and the smallest, most frequent flares on the sun. UC Berkeley scientists and engineers helped build the instruments, will operate the satellite, and will analyze the data from supernova explosions.
Tag: supernova
Farthest supernova yet for measuring cosmic history
January 9, 2013:
The Supernova Cosmology Project, based at Berkeley Lab and headed by UC Berkeley physicist and Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter, has discovered the most distant supernova yet that can be used in cosmological studies. Announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting, it will help answer questions about dark energy and the fate of the universe.
Berkeley astronomers featured tonight in KQED Quest program’Black Holes’
September 26, 2012:
UC Berkeley astronomer Alex Filippenko joins William Craig and other NuSTAR satellite scientists tonight on the KQED Quest program “Black Holes: Objects of Attraction,” airing locally at 7:30 p.m. Filippenko explains the physics of black holes, while Craig and NuSTAR principal investigator Fiona Harrison of Caltech explain how the x-ray satellite will help solve black hole mysteries.
Quick response helps ID star system preceding supernova
August 23, 2012:
When UC Berkeley astronomers Alex Filippenko and Joshua Bloom heard about a newly exploded star, they swiveled the Keck Telescope into position to take a picture. This data helped Berkeley Lab’s Peter Nugent determine that the “progenitor” star had a companion red giant and had undergone more than one previous nova explosion before it went supernova.
Stellar discovery
January 3, 2012:
It takes more than luck to find a supernova. California magazine offers a behind-the-scenes look at the organized search for these astronomical objects, and the role played by scientists at Berkeley.
Hubble images help pin down identity of August supernova’s companion star
December 15, 2011:
Thanks to images obtained over the past nine years by the Hubble Space Telescope, UC Berkeley astronomers were able to narrow down the identity of the companion star to a supernova first observed in August. It was not a bright red giant or helium star, but probably a more modest star like the sun, a subgiant or even a white dwarf.
Saul Perlmutter receives Nobel Prize in Stockholm
December 13, 2011:
Saul Perlmutter, UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab physicist, was feted in Stockholm, Sweden, last week before receiving his Nobel Prize medal on Saturday, Dec. 10, during a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Perlmutter shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess.
For Berkeley physicist, worldwide fame and campus parking
October 4, 2011:
For Berkeley physicist Saul Perlmutter, Tuesday, Oct. 4 began before 3 a.m. with a press call from Sweden, and soon a meaningful moment with his sleepy but excited 8-year-old. Then — quickly and inevitably — came the deluge of phone calls and e-mails, celebratory events and photo ops. And, it goes without saying, a coveted parking pass.
Saul Perlmutter awarded 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics
October 4, 2011:
Saul Perlmutter, UC Berkeley professor of physics and LBNL senior scientist, will share the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with two other scientists, including former UC Berkeley postdoc Adam Riess, for their discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. This discovery in 1998 led to the realization that the universe is largely composed of an enigmatic “dark energy.”
Survey gives clues to origin of Type Ia supernovae
October 4, 2011:
One white dwarf or two? That’s what astronomers have been asking about Type Ia supernovae, the key to measuring cosmic distance. Is the explosion from one white dwarf grown fat from feeding off another star, or are two white dwarfs merging? A new study suggests the latter.
‘Supernova of a generation’ discovered by Berkeley scientists
August 23, 2011:
Skywatchers should get their binoculars and telescopes ready. Scientists at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab caught a supernova soon after its explosion. The supernova, located in the Big Dipper constellation, is appearing brighter than any other supernova of its type in the last 30 years. Earthlings might even be able to see it with good binoculars in 10 days’ time.
Possible new class of supernovae puts calcium in your bones
May 19, 2010:
UC Berkeley astronomers have discovered several examples of an unusual type of exploding star that may be a new class of supernovae spewing calcium into the galaxy, which eventually ends up in all of us.
