Historical Supernovae and the Future of XRay Astronomy, Feb 2023
Channel: Northern Virginia Astronomy Club
Date: 2023-02-08

Supernovae, the cataclysmic explosions of stars, are among the most powerful events in the universe. They are a major component of the cycle of interstellar matter, and shape the internal structures of galaxies, seeding the cosmos with the elements necessary for life itself. In their aftermath, expanding clouds of gas and dust known as supernova remnants are visible for thousands of years. Despite no nearby supernovae in centuries, these remnants allow us to study the explosion mechanisms “up-close,” while simultaneously observing the reprocessing of the interstellar medium as the blast wave races outwards. I will give a general overview of some of the science of these remnants, showing many beautiful examples from telescopes such as Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, and the VLA. I will also give a mission-level overview of an exciting mission in development: the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM. XRISM is a JAXA/NASA collaborative mission with ESA participation, and is targeted for launch in the spring of 2023.

Dr. Brian Williams is a Research Astrophysicist in the X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He earned a B.S. in Physics from Florida State University and a Ph.D. in Physics from North Carolina State University. He came to Goddard as a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in 2012. From 2017-2018, he worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD in mission support for both the Hubble and JWST missions. In 2018, he returned to NASA Goddard, where he currently works as Project Scientist for XRISM. From 2020-2022, he served as Chief Scientist for the Physics of the Cosmos Program Office at NASA. Dr. Williams was a 2020 recipient of the NASA Early Career Achievement Medal. He has approximately 70 refereed publications with approximately 2500 citations.