'Stars that go Boom!' 

Saturday Science with Assistant Professor Manos Chatzopoulos

Modern fully-automated (robotic) telescopes have allowed astronomers to discover a multitude of stellar explosions, or supernovae, marking the deaths of massive stars. These stellar booms are so bright that they can be detected up to billions of light years away from the Earth and in some cases, leave behind some of the weirdest objects in the Universe, like black holes and neutron stars. In addition, supernovae and other explosive events, like the violent mergers of two stars, can play the role of a "cosmic delivery service" that seeds empty space with heavy elements necessary and essential for the development of life as we know it.

Dr. Chatzopoulos will give an overview of the techniques and ideas that modern astronomers employ to understand these fascinating cosmic catastrophes and plans to discover even newer types of exotic transient phenomena in the near future.