QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST MEDIA RELEASE
NATIONAL ASTRONOMY MEETING PRESS ROOM (31 MARCH - 4 APRIL ONLY):
Tel: +44 (0)2890 975262
975263
975264
NAM 2008
http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk
CONTACT DETAILS ARE LISTED AT THE END OF THIS RELEASE
SCIENCE AND ART OF HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE ON SHOW AT QUEEN'S
A public lecture at Queen's University Belfast showing how the Hubble Space Telescope has built a bridge between science and art will coincide with a presentation of the latest scientific study of Hubble galaxy images by Queen's astronomers.
"The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most successful scientific projects of all time, both in terms of the scientific output and its almost iconic public appeal," according to Lars Lindberg Christensen who will present a lecture on the topic at the Larmor Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University Belfast, at 19.30 on Wednesday 2nd April.
Christensen heads the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre in Munich, Germany, and is author of the book "Hubble - 15 Years of Discovery" (Springer, 2006). His lecture, entitled "Adventures with the Hubble Space Telescope," is one of several public events to be held at The Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) 2008 which will take place at Queen's from 31st March to 4th April. This public lecture is a community outreach initiative between the University and the Irish Astronomical Association.
"Hubble's exquisite image quality has enabled astronomers to gain entirely new insights into the workings of a huge range of different astronomical objects and provided the visual overview of underlying astrophysical processes taking place in planets, stars and galaxies," Christensen noted.
Queen's astronomers, led by Professor of Astronomy Stephen J. Smartt, have been using Hubble to take stunning images of galaxies. As Hubble is above the Earth’s atmosphere its exquisite resolution allows the study of individual stars in these galaxies. Massive stars in the Universe die in immense explosions called supernovae. But exactly what type of stars explode and what is the lowest mass star that can produce an explosion is not known. Mark Crockett, a student at Queen’s, is working on this problem with Hubble data for his PhD thesis.
"Massive stars are up to 10,000 times brighter than the Sun," Crockett explained. "At the end of their lives, these stars have cores made entirely of iron. When the cores collapse the stars explode as supernovae, enriching the Universe with all the different chemical elements. Everything around us, including ourselves is made of stardust.”
When a supernova is discovered in these distant galaxies, Crockett and Smartt begin a painstaking search of galaxy images that Hubble has taken previously. They pinpoint the exact position of the supernova on the earlier images to locate the star that exploded, one of often hundreds of millions of stars in the galaxy - a needle in a haystack problem of cosmic proportions. If they find it, they can work out the mass and type of star from its brightness and colour. Only six such stars have been identified before they exploded and the Queen’s team has discovered the nature of five of them.
In their latest work on Hubble images, to be presented at the NAM meeting, the Queen's team revealed the results of their ten year search for these elusive stars. It appears that stars as low as seven times the mass of the sun can explode as supernovae. They have not found any very massive stars that exploded, which suggests that the most massive stars may collapse to form black holes producing either no supernova or one that is too faint to observe. This intriguing possibility will be discussed at the meeting.
The public can learn more about the history and future of the Hubble Space Telescope at the evening lecture by Lars Christensen on Wednesday 2nd April at 19.30 in the Physics and Astronomy Building. This lecture is being held in conjunction with the Irish Astronomical Association. For details of how to book free tickets see nam2008.qub.ac.uk.
Image of NGC 2397 (click for high resolution image)
Image Caption:
The image shows a galaxy known as NGC 2397 which hosted the supernova SN 2006bc. It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on 14th September 2006 and the Queen’s team found no star at the position of the explosion on images taken before it occurred. In their ten year search of images of 19 supernovae, they were only able to identify three stars before they exploded. This was because the stars were too faint to see even in the superb Hubble images.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2008) is hosted by Queen's
University Belfast. It is principally sponsored by the RAS and the
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). NAM 2008 is being held
together with the UK Solar Physics (UKSP) and Magnetosphere, Ionosphere
and Solar-Terrestrial (MIST) spring meetings.
CONTACTS
For media enquiries please contact:
Lisa Mitchell
Press Officer
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 5384
Mob: 07814 422 572
lisa.mitchell(at)qub.ac.uk
Out of hours pager: 07699 785 209
Lars Lindberg Christensen
PIO/Head of Communication ESA – Hubble Space Telescope Coordinating Facility
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
München
Germany
Cell : +49 (0) 173 38 72 621
lars(at)eso.org
Prof. Stephen Smartt
s.smartt(at)qub.ac.uk
Astrophysics Research Centre
School of Maths and Physics
Queen’s University Belfast
Work: 02890 971245
Mr. Mark Crockett
rcrockett02(at)qub.ac.uk
Astrophysics Research Centre
School of Maths and Physics
Queen’s University Belfast
Work: 02890 973509
Mr. Terry Moseley (PR Officer, Irish Astronomical Association)
Office: 028 9025 3637
Home: 028 9058 7658
Mobile: 07979 300 842
Fax (office) 028 9025 3630
E: terrymosel(at)aol.com (Home)
E: Terry.Moseley(at)nio.x.gsi.gov.uk (office)
Mr. Pat O'Neil (IAA)
Tel: 028 9028 0322
Mob: 07866 413 580
E: pb.oneill(at)ntlworld.com
