Shock Waves Power an Exploding Star
- By Raleigh McElvery
- September 5, 2017
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Roughly 50 times each year, a star nearing the end of its life accretes too much material from a close companion star and erupts in a violent display of light — shedding its outer surface and propelling shock waves into our galaxy — only to recover and smolder as it … Continue Reading →
Science as Food
- By Maggie Masetti
- February 9, 2015
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We’ve got a little running theme here of space cakes here at Blueshift. And we’ve got another one for you – this time it’s a gamma-ray Novae cake. And we also have an interview with the cake-makers, who we have actually featured before (links to their other cakes at at … Continue Reading →
Novae in Different Lights
- By Maggie Masetti
- November 25, 2014
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In part one of this series, we talked to researcher Laura Chomiuk about the scientific mysteries of novae V959 Mon. She has collaborated with two Blueshifters, Koji Mukai, and Tommy Nelson, who also study novae, but primarily at X-ray energies. We chatted with Tommy to learn more about his research … Continue Reading →
A “Noval” Mystery
- By Maggie Masetti
- November 10, 2014
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The mystery around Nova V959 Mon was recently deciphered with the use of multiwavelength light – including radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray. First off, what is a nova? It’s basically a huge thermonuclear explosion that’s caused when a dense white dwarf star pulls material from an orbiting companion star onto itself. … Continue Reading →
