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.
A team of astronomers have observed an explosion in the universe unlike any ever witnessed before. The gamma-ray bursts from outside the Milky Way galaxy repeated several times over the course of a day. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) ...
Astronomy
Sep 9, 2025
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Around 11,300 years ago, a massive star teetered on the precipice of annihilation. It pulsed with energy as it expelled its outer layers, shedding the material into space. Eventually it exploded as a supernova, and its remnant ...
Astronomy
Sep 3, 2025
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What's the link between an exploding star, climate change and human evolution? Francis Thackeray, who has researched ancient environments and fossils for many years, sets out his ideas about what happened in the distant past—with ...
Evolution
Sep 2, 2025
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Astronomers have performed radio observations of WTP 14adeqka—a tidal disruption event discovered a decade ago. Results of the observational campaign, published August 22 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide crucial insights ...
By analyzing the data from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) international database and the Small and Medium Aperture Telescope System (SMARTS), astronomers have inspected a nova in the Large Magellanic ...
Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an "extremely stripped supernova."
Astronomy
Aug 24, 2025
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An international team of scientists, including Northwestern University astrophysicists, has spotted one of the brightest fast radio bursts (FRBs) ever recorded—and pinpointed its location with unprecedented precision.
Astronomy
Aug 21, 2025
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362
An international team of scientists, led by Northwestern University astrophysicists, has detected a never-before-seen type of exploding star, or supernova, that is rich with silicon, sulfur and argon. The study, "Extremely ...
Astronomy
Aug 20, 2025
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131
A new kind of stellar explosion provides a novel way to probe the distant universe, according to new results published today in Nature Astronomy.
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2025
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69
Supernovae appear to our eyes—and to astronomical instruments—as brilliant flashes that flare up in the sky without warning, in places where nothing was visible just moments before. The flash is caused by the colossal explosion ...
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2025
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