New Year’s Eve 2020/2021 meant severely restricted celebrations in many places; none of the usually spectacular and elaborate fireworks lit up the sky. Not so the universe. Here, New Year’s Eve is celebrated every day, and spectacular fireworks are constantly taking place. Gigantic star explosions, one supernova after another, thousands of light years away from us.
This evening we will look at what a supernova actually is, what types of supernovae there are, what purpose they serve in the universe and what science learns from them. Afterwards, we will go on another star journey into the depths of space and let ourselves be enchanted by the beauty of the universe.
Credit: Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/GBT/VLA/Dyer, Maddalena & Cornwell, X-ray: Chandra X-ray Observatory; NASA/CXC/Rutgers/G. Cassam-Chenaï, J. Hughes et al., Visible light: 0.9-metre Curtis Schmidt optical telescope; NOAO/AURA/NSF/CTIO/Middlebury College/F. Winkler and Digitized Sky Survey. (Creative Commons CC BY 4.0)
