| Title: | Stars: Their Life and Afterlife |
| Abstract: |
One star explodes and thousands of years later we observe its remains as a beautiful shell of matter shining across the observable spectrum. Another star explodes and leaves behind a rapidly spinning neutron star, powering a nebula of hot gas. A third ends in a black hole, visible only by inference from the hot matter surrounding it. What physical processes give rise to these amazing explosions and beautiful remnants? What determines how a star evolves and how it ends its life? What role does a star’s environment play and how does a star influence its environment and affect its neighbors? In their death throes and after, stars are responsible for a lot more radiation than just your basic starlight: radio, X-rays, cosmic rays, gravity waves, gamma rays, pulsed light. How do they do that? The 68th Compton Lecture Series will take a look at how stellar formation and evolution connect with the exciting, often quite energetic, ways in which stars die and will examine the fascinating remnants and radiations they leave behind. In these lectures Dr. Humensky will give an introduction to stellar death and afterlife, drawing connections between the environment in which a star is born and the remnant it leaves behind. No scientific background is required. Just bring your curiosity. |
| Details: | The lectures are free and are held on Saturday mornings at 11:00 AM in Room 106 of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 South Ellis Avenue. Enter through the door at the southeast corner. The series will run each Saturday from October 4 through December 13, 2008. The Compton Lecture Luncheon will be held on December 13th. There will be no lecture on October 18th, November 29th (Thanksgiving weekend), or December 6th. |
| Lecture 1: A Tale of Two Supernova Remnants | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 2: Where Stars Come From | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 3: The Life and Times of Low Mass Stars | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 4: Massive Stars and Supernovae | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 5: Supernova Remnants and Cosmic Rays | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 6: A Galactic Bubble Bath, and Other Considerations | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 7: Life On, In, and Around Neutron Stars | Talk and Notes |
| Lecture 8: Fade to Black: Black Holes and X-ray Binaries | Talk and Notes |
| Luncheon Handout / Reservation Sheet | Handout |
| 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics | Press Release |
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