The Shocking Ways Stars Die

Dr. Tony Piro, The Carnegie Observatories

Supernovae are amazing cosmic explosions where for a few weeks to months a single star can become as bright as a billion stars combined. Even though supernovae are crucial to a wide range of areas in astrophysics, from producing the elements to galactic evolution to measuring the accelerating expansion of our Universe, the actual progenitors are frustratingly elusive in many cases. One of the best ways to learn about the stars that are exploding is through observations of so-called shock cooling, the early emission that is seen as the stellar material heated by the supernova shock expands and cools.

I will discuss new theoretical work that utilizes this unique information in a variety of different scenarios to measure fundamental properties of the stars in their moments before death, such as their mass, radius, and circumstellar material. In addition, I will show how such models can even give us insight into the birth of black holes and the electromagnetic emission we see from neutron star mergers.