Celestial fireworks: revealing the physics of the time-variable sky

Informazioni relative al progetto

Fireworks

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 725161

DOI

10.3030/725161

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 24 Aprile 2017

Data di avvio 1 Settembre 2017

Data di completamento 31 Luglio 2023

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Costo totale

€ 2 461 111,00

Contributo UE

€ 2 461 111,00

Coordinato da

WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Fireworks (Celestial fireworks: revealing the physics of the time-variable sky)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-03-01 al 2023-07-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

This project is aimed at studying transient astrophysical phenomena on timescales shorter than previously possible - nightly (subproject 1), hourly (subproject 2) and down to minure/second timescale (subproject 5), as well as to collect and analyse large samples of such events (subproject 3) and to develop new tools and methods that will help to find unusual objects (subproject 4).

Understanding transient astrophysical phenomena is a key to understanding fundamental problems in astrophysics and physics in general, and move our understanding of the physical universe surrounding us forward.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

All subprojects were concluded successfully. The project contributed significantly to the study of transients of all types on timescales of days (especially young, 1-2 days old supernova explosions) and pioneered studies of the transient sky down to timescales of minutes with the W-FAST facility. It led to numerous high-impact and highly visible publications. It provided valuable training to young scientists, including thesis projects for students as well as training to postdoctoral students, some of whom now hold tenure-track positions.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

We have:

* measured for the first time the fraction of all massive stars that explode within clouds of surrounding matter, and showed this is ubiquitous (60% of cases), indicating that massive stars undergo a period of rapid
mass loss prior to their terminal explosion; this is unexplained by standard models of stellar evolution, and require a new thinking about massive star evolution, structure, and explosion as supernovae.

* We have found the first example of an exploding star within a Wolf-Rayet wind nebula.

* We have contributed to the discovery of the first gravitational-wave counterpart, GW170817.

Discovery of a new type of supernova