14-Year-Old Discovers Rare Supernova

GOOD FOR HER !

GOOD !

just keep her away from david letterman

Happy For You

Jim

You go Caroline!! Good job girlie!

They could have named it after her - SN Jessica2008........

Good for her. Too many times the works of amateur astronomers is disregarded. Back in the 1960's my Dad made a discovery-he was an independent co-discoverer of the 4 - 5 day rotation of Venus' upper atmosphere. This was scoffed at by many professionals including Carl Sagan himself. Years later it was proven correct and my Dad recieved a congraulatory letter from Mr. Sagan.

Good for her!!!! Rock on girl!!!!!

fantastic!

A supernova is, almost by definition, a rare event--in our own galaxy there is
only one about every 200 years. We are due for another, and the most likely
star to explode in such a fashion is Eta Carinae.

There are several ways this can happen.

All supernovae are related to the fact that a star with a mass over a certain
critical value called Chandrashekar's limit, can not become stable white
dwarf stars when their supply of thermonuclear fuel at their core is used up.
A star normally starts out on the main sequence and derives its energy by
fusing hydrogen into helium; when the hydrogen at the core is used up, the
core starts fusing helium into carbon. Meanwile, a layer of hydrogen
adjacent to the core starts fusing into helium, and the star swells up and
becomes a red giant. The star becomes so big and distended it can not
hold onto its outer layers, which drift off into space and become a planetary
nebula. For a star less than 8 solar masses, enough material is lost to get
the mass below Chandrashekar's limit--about 1.38 solar masses; what
remains is the burned out core, a white dwarf. But if the mass exceeds
8 solar masses more and more complex thermonuclear reactions take place
until a core of iron is built up. Iron does not support thermonuclear fusion,
so the core collapses under its own weight--and the rest of the star comes
crashing in after it. The heat generated causes the iron atoms to dissolve
into a "soup" of subatomic particles--but the process is strongly endothermic--
it absorbs energy rather than creating it. The core implodes suddenly, and
the outer layers go crashing in after it. So much heat is now generated that
out of control thermonuclear reactions take place in the outer layers, and the
star blows itself to pieces--except for the core, which collapses into a solid
mass of neutrons. The outer layers of the star form a rapidly expanding shell
of gas outside the burned out core.

A supernova can also take place when a white dwarf in a close binary system
whose mass is JUST UNDER Chandrashekar's limit accretes enough material
from a companion star that is starting to evolve into a red giant to push its mass
"over the brink". The white dwarf begins to collapse and the heat thus generated
rekindles thermonuclear reactions at the center of the star which drives up the
temperature still further. However since the matter at the center of the star is
in a "degenerate" state it does not obey the ideal gas law and does not expand
and lower its temperature. Instead, it continues to shrink, and the thermonuclear
reactions at the center become more and more violent until they tear the star
apart. This type of supernova does not leave behind a solid core of neutrons;
only the expanding shell of gas.

Now THIS right here is a story I like to hear about. Not a girl winning a texting competition or the word f*ck on a yearbook. This is cool. :)

And if we hadn't aborted 1/3 of the gen-xers just think of where we could be by now. Half of them were females. And most of them because they were "inconvenient".

Congrats to this young lady. Just goes to show that young people can do anything they set their mind to. Keep up the good work young lady!!!!!

bush blew up the star "aint" that right democrats! remember how he made that "MAN-MADE DISASTER KATRINA". thank god obama the super-hero is here to save us from the super-villian bush.( as seen through democrats eyes

BRAVO to her...here's hoping more of the skies open up for her~