SPACE FORENSICS:Death of a Star

Sara MitchellJim Lochner

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, Maryland

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What’s a supernova?

Can you spot the supernova?

Supernova Timeline

• Earliest recorded supernova — 185 A.D. in China

• Famous historic supernovae in 1006, 1572, and 1604 A.D.

• First telescope built in 1608 by Hans Lippershey

• Multiwavelength observations of supernova remnants began in 1937

Beginning the Investigation

What do we want to know ?

Case File: Cassiopeia A

•Host Galaxy: Milky Way•Constellation: Cassiopeia•Galactic Coordinates: G111.7-2.1

•Distance: ~10,000 light years

•Discovery: 1947

Interesting facts:•Discovered by radio observation

•Strongest radio source in the sky beyond our solar system

Image: Chandra X-Ray Observatory August 19, 1999

Crime Scene Photographs

VisibleX-Ray RadioInfrared

Hot gas

(50 million degrees)

Clumps of matter

(10,000 degrees)

Dust grains

(several hundred degrees)

Spiraling high energy

electrons

Why Multiwavelength?

Supernova “DNA”

“Signature” Spectroscopy

Looking for Signatures

All X-RayEnergies

Calcium

Silicon

Iron

Case Closed?

•Have we answered all of our questions?

•Have we found new questions?•Where else can we find

answers?•What could we learn from

seeing a “live” supernova?

Is Cas A a “cold case”?

Image: SN2005cs© 2005-2007 by R. Jay GaBanyhttp://www.cosmotography.com

Is Cas A a “cold case”?

Image: SN2005apSloan Digital Sky Survey

Larger Body of Evidence

Crab Nebula(from SN 1054)

Tycho’s SN(SN 1572)

Kepler’s SN(SN 1604)

SN 1987A

Space Forensics: The Big Picture