We started Day 4 of our Astronomy DT with a guest speaker. Dr. John Blondin, the Associate Dean of Research in the College of Sciences at NC State, came to speak to us on supernovae and binary stars. Tatooine references aside, he told us about how he uses supercomputers in computational astrophysics to model supernovae shock waves, gas dynamics, and binary systems. Who knew the universe could be so SASI?
Before we left for lunch, we finished The Martian.
After lunch, our second guest speaker joined us through Zoom. Dr. Kneller, also from NC State, showed us the value of the neutrino, an abundant but difficult to detect subatomic particle. He told us about the underground neutrino telescopes, which image celestial objects from neutrinos collected by highly sensitive detectors. He also told us about the value of neutrinos to understanding supernovae, and the development of the early warning system to observe supernovae optically.
Following our great guest speaker, we continued working on the Motel-O-Scope.
-Dillan Jagannath (’25)
