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3rd annual Astronomy Night Out – “Tuning into the Cosmic Symphony: Pulsar Timing, the Gravitational Wave Background, and Beyond”

Event

3rd annual Astronomy Night Out – “Tuning into the Cosmic Symphony: Pulsar Timing, the Gravitational Wave Background, and Beyond”

On Friday, May 17, 2024, CIERA welcomed 170 in-person and 25 remote participants to its 3rd annual Astronomy Night Out, an evening dedicated to sharing astronomy with the community through a variety of formats. The keynote public lecture was presented by CIERA-Adler Postdoctoral Fellow Caitlin Witt and entitled, “Tuning into the Cosmic Symphony: Pulsar Timing, the Gravitational Wave

  • Education,
  • Event,
  • Outreach

Brightest gamma-ray burst of all time came from the collapse of a massive star

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Brightest gamma-ray burst of all time came from the collapse of a massive star

In October 2022, an international team of researchers, including Northwestern University astrophysicists, observed the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded, GRB 221009A. In a paper published in April 2024, a team led by CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow Peter Blanchard has confirmed that the phenomenon responsible for the historic burst — dubbed the B.O.A.T. (“brightest of all time”)

Aaron M. Geller / Northwestern / CIERA / IT Research Computing and Data Services

  • Science

‘Blob-like’ home of farthest-known fast radio burst is collection of seven galaxies

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‘Blob-like’ home of farthest-known fast radio burst is collection of seven galaxies

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the host galaxy of an exceptionally powerful fast radio burst, FRB 20220610A. In summer 2022, astronomers detected the most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed. And coming from a location that dates halfway back to the Big Bang, it also was the farthest known FRB spotted to date.

NASA, ESA, STScI, Alexa Gordon (Northwestern)

  • Science

Unprecedented gamma-ray burst explained by long-lived jet

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Unprecedented gamma-ray burst explained by long-lived jet

Last year, Northwestern University researchers uncovered new observational evidence that long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can result from the merger of a neutron star with another compact object (either another neutron star or black hole) — a finding that was previously believed to be impossible. Now, another Northwestern team offers a potential explanation for what generated

Ore Gottlieb/Danat Issa/Alexander Tchekhovskoy/CIERA/Northwestern

  • Science

Dying stars’ cocoons could be new source of gravitational waves

Video

Dying stars’ cocoons could be new source of gravitational waves

When massive stars collapse into black holes, they may create powerful outflows (or jets) of particles traveling close to the speed of light. New simulations model this process — from the time the star collapses into a black hole until the jet escapes. For the first time, the simulations show that the cocoon of stellar

Ore Gottlieb/Northwestern/CIERA

  • Science

Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich showcase Firefly on AAS Journal Author Series

Interview

Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich showcase Firefly on AAS Journal Author Series

On May 27, 2023, CIERA Research Assistant Professor Aaron Geller and former NSF Graduate Fellow Alex Gurvich were featured on the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Journal Author Series to showcase Firefly, their new browser-based interactive tool for visualizing 3D particle data sets. Geller and Gurvich were interviewed by the AAS’s Frank Timmes. Read the full news story

Frank Timmes, American Astronomical Society

  • Event

Data Science Challenges in Gravitational Wave Surveys: a CIERA Interdisciplinary Colloquium by Tyson Littenburg

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Data Science Challenges in Gravitational Wave Surveys: a CIERA Interdisciplinary Colloquium by Tyson Littenburg

Dr. Tyson Littenburg presents an Interdisciplinary Colloquium on April 13, 2023, organized by Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics. Read the full CIERA News story here.

  • Event,
  • Interdisciplinary,
  • Data Science & Computing

“Dance of the Black Holes”, composed by Darsan Swaroop Bellie

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“Dance of the Black Holes”, composed by Darsan Swaroop Bellie

“Dance of the Black Holes” is an original composition by CIERA Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow Darsan Swaroop Bellie (on drums) and the debut performance of the Star Eyes Initiative. The performance took place during the CIERA-hosted LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration meeting networking event on March 15, 2023. Composer’s Notes below: Focusing on a binary black hole system, the

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  • Event,
  • Outreach,
  • Interdisciplinary

Star Collapses into NEW Black Hole

Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do2oFQjAS8o&ab_channel=NationalScienceFoundation

Star Collapses into NEW Black Hole

Affectionately referred to as the B.O.A.T. (“brightest of all time”), the powerful explosion occurred approximately 2.4 billion light-years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Sagitta. Astrophysicists, including Jillian Rastinejad, first detected the GRB, which was a few hundred seconds in duration, in gamma-ray light on Oct. 9. Read the full Northwestern News

National Science Foundation

Gemini North image (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

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Gemini North image (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

This Gemini North image, superimposed on an image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the telltale near-infrared afterglow of a kilonova produced by a long GRB (GRB 211211A). This discovery challenges the prevailing theory that long GRBs exclusively come from supernovae, the end-of-life explosions of massive stars. Read the full Northwestern News story: December

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani; NASA/ESA

artist’s impression of a kilonova produced by two colliding neutron stars (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

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artist’s impression of a kilonova produced by two colliding neutron stars (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

This artist’s impression shows a kilonova produced by two colliding neutron stars. While studying the aftermath of a long gamma-ray burst (GRB), two independent teams of astronomers using a host of telescopes in space and on Earth, including the Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i and the Gemini South telescope in Chile, have uncovered the unexpected

NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine

A broader view of GRB 211211A’s location (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

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A broader view of GRB 211211A’s location (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

A broader view of GRB 211211A’s location, circled in red, captured using three filters on Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Read the full Northwestern News story: December 7, 2022

NASA, ESA, Rastinejad et al. (2022), Troja et al. (2022), and Gladys Kober (Catholic Univ. of America)

Gamma-ray burst 211211A (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

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Gamma-ray burst 211211A (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

Gamma-ray burst 211211A, the location of which is circled in red, erupted on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy around 1 billion light-years away in the constellation Boötes. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured the image with its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. Read the full Northwestern News story: December 7,

NASA, ESA, Rastinejad et al. (2022), and Gladys Kober (Catholic Univ. of America)

Illustration: two neutron stars begin to merge (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

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Illustration: two neutron stars begin to merge (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

Two neutron stars begin to merge in this illustration, blasting a jet of high-speed particles and producing a cloud of debris. Scientists think these kinds of events are factories for a significant portion of the universe’s heavy elements, including gold. Read the full Northwestern News story: December 7, 2022

A. Simonnet (Sonoma State University) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Artist’s impression of GRB 211211A (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

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Artist’s impression of GRB 211211A (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

The kilonova and gamma-ray burst is on the right. The blue color represents material squeezed along the poles, while the red colors indicate material ejected by the two inspiralling neutron stars that is now swirling around the merged object. A disk of ejecta emitted after the merger, hidden behind the red and blue ejecta, is shown in

Aaron M. Geller/Northwestern/CIERA and IT Research Computing Services

Short gamma-ray bursts traced farther into distant universe

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Short gamma-ray bursts traced farther into distant universe

A Northwestern University-led team of astronomers has developed the most extensive inventory to date of the galaxies where short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) originate. Using several highly sensitive instruments and sophisticated galaxy modeling, the researchers, including Anya Nugent, pinpointed the galactic homes of 84 SGRBs and probed the characteristics of 69 of the identified host galaxies.

W.M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko