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Professor Edward van der Heuvel gave a talk at UWA on Gamma-ray bursts and the formation of black holes. He was charming, interesting and took us through the life cycle of the stars, specifically the fate of massive ones. I heart Dutch Astronomers.
The basic idea is that stars massing upwards of 8-25 times our own little sun burn out in comparatively tiny amounts of time (a mere 5 million years). When they hit a certain point they explode (supernova), generating a burst of Gamma rays (among other things) and leave behind a black hole.
The further we look into space, the further we can look back in time, which is why Astronomers always want bigger telescopes. It’s not just about the pretty pictures.
Am most amused to hear that the US satellites launched to keep an eye on nuclear activity during the cold war detected all of one Gamma ray burst on the planet but saw them daily coming from outer space. It’s not the Russians, it’s E.T! Am less amused to hear it took the squirrelly bastards six more years before they released their results to the scientific community.
The Gamma-Ray burst Afterglow Collaboration at ESO was set up after the Dutch and Italians realised they couldn’t go it alone either. It turns out the 'afterglow' is a quite short phenomenon and you have to have a lot of friends with telescopes to pinpoint where it's coming from. GRACE has linked Gamma ray bursts with the explosions of massive stars.
Some fun animations here from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and here from NASA.
The basic idea is that stars massing upwards of 8-25 times our own little sun burn out in comparatively tiny amounts of time (a mere 5 million years). When they hit a certain point they explode (supernova), generating a burst of Gamma rays (among other things) and leave behind a black hole.
The further we look into space, the further we can look back in time, which is why Astronomers always want bigger telescopes. It’s not just about the pretty pictures.
Am most amused to hear that the US satellites launched to keep an eye on nuclear activity during the cold war detected all of one Gamma ray burst on the planet but saw them daily coming from outer space. It’s not the Russians, it’s E.T! Am less amused to hear it took the squirrelly bastards six more years before they released their results to the scientific community.
The Gamma-Ray burst Afterglow Collaboration at ESO was set up after the Dutch and Italians realised they couldn’t go it alone either. It turns out the 'afterglow' is a quite short phenomenon and you have to have a lot of friends with telescopes to pinpoint where it's coming from. GRACE has linked Gamma ray bursts with the explosions of massive stars.
Some fun animations here from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and here from NASA.
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