Transient and explosive astronomical phenomena constitute a research area focused on short-lived, high-energy events in the universe, such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, tidal disruption events, kilonovae, and fast radio bursts. This field investigates the underlying physical mechanisms driving rapid energy release, including relativistic jets, shock breakout, nucleosynthesis, compact object mergers, and accretion-induced instabilities. Research integrates multiwavelength and multimessenger observations (electromagnetic spectra, gravitational waves, neutrinos) with numerical simulations and theoretical modeling to constrain progenitor systems, energy budgets, radiative transfer processes, and environmental impact, including feedback on galactic evolution and the production of heavy elements.
Astronomers have created a detailed forecast of where they expect to observe future stellar explosions in a nearby galaxy, opening a new window into how exploding stars shape the cosmos. Focusing on M33, a spiral galaxy about ...
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2026
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In 1181 AD, a bright "guest star" was observed to linger in the sky for around six months. Nearly 850 years later, the likely remnants of this event were rediscovered and tentatively linked to the 1181 supernova and dubbed ...
A black hole has shredded a massive star like it was "preparing a snack for lunch," according to a team of scientists at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting (5–8 January).
Astronomy
Jan 6, 2026
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Many stars die spectacularly when they explode as supernovae. During these violent explosions, they leave behind thick, chaotic clouds of debris shaped like cauliflowers. But supernova remnant Pa 30 looks nothing like that.
Astronomy
Jan 2, 2026
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An international team of astronomers has achieved a first in probing the early universe, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), detecting a supernova—the explosive death of a massive star—at an unprecedented cosmic ...
Astronomy
Dec 25, 2025
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How common are Earth-like planets in the universe? When I started working on supernova explosions, I never imagined that my research would eventually lead me to ask a question about the origin of Earth-like planets. Yet that ...
An international team of astronomers has conducted optical and near-infrared observations of a supernova designated SN 2022ngb. As a result, it was found that SN 2022ngb is a faint and slow-evolving Type IIb supernova with ...
Among the more puzzling cosmic phenomena discovered over the past few decades are brief and very bright flashes of blue and ultraviolet light that gradually fade away, leaving behind faint X-ray and radio emissions. With ...
Astronomy
Dec 16, 2025
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170
Rocky planets like our Earth may be far more common than previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Science Advances. It suggests that when our solar system formed, a nearby supernova (the massive ...
Supernovae aren't one of the JWST's main science themes, but the perceptive telescope is full of surprises. Recently, it pinpointed a single star in a galaxy when the universe was only about 730 million years old. It wasn't ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2025
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