Death of a Star
Investigation of a Supernova Remnant
X-ray image of supernova remnant E0102-72 from the Chandra X-ray
Observatory.
Credit: NASA/CXO/SAO
A star has died in an enormous explosion! There are no direct
witnesses, and it is clear that the star has been dead for many years.
Your job is to sift through the leftover pieces to pinpoint a few of the
shady elements who may have been present in the explosion. To perform
this investigation, you will use data from a supernova remnant (SNR)
taken by Suzaku, a Japanese X-ray observatory with NASA
participation.
Astronomers have dealt with this kind of wily character before, so
you will start by getting a brief introduction to what astronomers
already know. Then you'll look at a spectrum from a supernova remnant
called E0102-72 to try and characterize the material contained in the
supernova explosion. You will fit the spectrum to a series of models in
search of the best model. Finally you'll examine your model to connect
the best mathimatical model back to the physical Universe.
If you haven't already familiarized yourself with spectroscopy and
modeling, go back to the Spectroscopy
Introduction page and go over the materials there before continuing
on.
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