1. Quick introduction: Supernova ! Visible supernovae are uncommon and of great interest to astronomers. They occur when a massive star has burned up most of its “fuel” and suddenly “collapses”. A shock wave is formed which blows off the outer layers of the star. Supernovae in our own galaxy had not been seen since the 1600’s until ………………………… 1987

2. One dramatic result of stellar evolution: a supernova remnant

3. Hydrostatic equilibrium maintains a star’s size during Stage 7

4. Stellar composition changes as the hydrogen is used up During stage 7 of stellar evolution, hydrogen burning causes a build-up of helium in the star’s core.

5. Hydrogen shell burning occurs around an “ash” core, which is mostly helium, and the temperature is T = 10 million K

6. Helium shell burning continues, and carbon burning commences

7. Heavy Element Fusion - shells like an onion

8. A Type II Supernova is a “core collapse” and occurs when the core is finally pure iron, which cannot be fused to other elements. The core collapses to a big ball of neutrons, which causes a shock wave to bounce back outward, which blows off the entire envelope of the red giant, to form a supernova remnant.

11. 1994

12. SN2005cs in M51(Whirlpool galaxy) discovered June 27, 2005

14. Supernovae in our galaxy have been infrequent. Historical supernovae in the Milky Way (none observed by telescope !!!!): http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw_sn.htmlhttp://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw_sn.html Recent supernovae by date: http://cfa- www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/RecentSupernovae.htmlhttp://cfa- www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/RecentSupernovae.html All supernovae since 1885: http://cfa- www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Supernovae.htmlhttp://cfa- www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Supernovae.html Links for supernovae on the web: http://rsd- www.nrl.navy.mil/7212/montes/sne.htmlhttp://rsd- www.nrl.navy.mil/7212/montes/sne.html Latest supernovae (by current brightness !): http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html Supernova SN2005cs in M51 (Whirlpool galaxy): http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2005/sn2005cs.html also see: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050719.html http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2005/sn2005cs.htmlhttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050719.html

15. Supernova Remnants Vela supernova remnant Other examples: Cassiopeia A (link) (link)link N63A (link)link Crab nebula

16. M1 – the Crab Nebula is from a supernova seen in year A.D. 1054 The remnant is 1800 pc away and the diameter is currently 2 pc.

19. Astronomers have been waiting for hundreds of years for a bright, nearby supernova. Finally, one night in 1987… We learn the story of the observation in the movie “Death of a Star” (from the Nova series on PBS)

20. Supernova 1987A seen near nebula 30 Doradus

21. Supernova Light Curves fall into two types

22. Supernova 1987A was not typical

26. Supernova 1987A linklink link link See mpeg animations of this.

28. Eta Carinae will probably go supernova in the next 100,000 years or so. SEDS link SEDS link