Maryam Modjaz
UC Berkeley, Astronomy
Abstract:
Supernova 2008D was discovered serendipitously in January 2008 by the NASA Swift satellite via its X-ray emission and has generated great interest by astronomers (10 papers so far) and much media attention. It is a supernova of Type Ib, that is, a core-collapse supernova whose massive stellar progenitor had been been stripped of its outmost hydrogen layer, but had retained its next-inner helium layer, before explosion. I will discuss the significance of this supernova and what it tells us about the deaths of massive stars, the size of its progenitor and the implications for the supernova-GRB connection. Reference: Modjaz et al. (2008, ApJ submitted) http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0805.2201