Ultranovae!: Blasts from the Frontier of Astronomy

By: David S. Stevenson

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Synopsis: 'Supernovae!: Blasts from the Frontier of Astronomy' examines the most recent and exciting discoveries about what happens at the end of the stellar evolution of a massive stars. This book focuses on the extreme - the most intense and brilliant of astronomical explosions. It features the discoveries of SN 2007bi, a pair-instability supernova and SN 2006gy, a pulsational-pair instability supernova, or hypernova. These are highly significant observational finds that push the frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics, particularly as these objects were hitherto only predicted in theory and previously thought to be relics of the early universe, hence unobservable now. 'Supernovae!' examines and explains cataclysmic and unusual events at the very frontier of our knowledge of stellar astrophysics, and presents them in a way that non-professionals can understand and enjoy.