1. Supernova Educator Guide Dr. Kevin McLin SSU E/PO Group 1 Monday, July 28, 2008

2. Find the supernova Image: R. Jay GeBany

3. Supernova light curves From Reiss et al. 1998 Brightnes s Supernovae brighten very quickly, then fade slowly (exponentially) over time t=0 for these plots occurs at maximum light. The actual explosion begins days before that, but it’s hard to catch.

4. Rare Look at a Supernova XRTUVOT Swift Images of NGC 2770 2008 January 7:00 UT

5. Rare Look at a Supernova Swift Images of NGC 2770 XRTUVOT 2008 January 9:00 UT

6. X-ray Light curve of SN2008D This is the first supernova ever to be “caught in the act.” Due to a serendipitous pointing of Swift to study SN2007uy in the galaxy NGC 2770. It caught the “shock breakout,” where the shock from the core is breaking out of the star’s surface. missed by about one minute

7. Core of WR star collapses Resulting shock disrupts envelope Star explodes

8. http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~alicia/SN2008D/ Additional Information

9. Three Supernova Activities Fishing for Supernovae Crawl of the Crab Magnetic Poles and Pulsars Three Supernova Activities Fishing for Supernovae Crawl of the Crab Magnetic Poles and Pulsars 9 Three Supernova Activities Fishing for Supernovae Crawl of the Crab Magnetic Poles and Pulsars Crawl of the Crab

10. We will use two pictures of the Crab Nebula 1956 1999 Crab Pulsar

11. Lots of Knots

12. Measuring Expansion Gives Age 1. Assume pulsar remains at center of nebula 2. The knots move over time 3. Using both images we can measure the rate of expansion 4. Compare rate to size, we have the age

13. Measuring Expansion Gives Age 1. Use spreadsheet provided 2. Enter x,y pairs for each knot in the two images 3. Plot rate vs. distance and determine the slope of the line ( =slope(y_data,x_data) ) 4. The age is the reciprocal of the slope

14. So, let’s get started!