Those tests measured the instrument's sensitivities under a range of conditions so scientists will be able to adjust the data to produce a truer understanding of objects under study. With AXAF, astrophysicists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and around the world will observe energetic bodies ranging from quasars down to dust clouds in a quest to understand more of how and why the universe operates. SN 1993J was seen to be one kind of massive explosion, but then seemed to morph into a distinctly different kind. Looking for Pulsars in the Fast Lane Scientists are looking for bizarre, short-lived, powerhouse stars that burst with some of the brightest energy in the universe. Using AXAF, they hope to find some of the few that may exist.
Carbon monoxide is the deadly gas produced from inefficient combustion in furnaces and car engines.
With the rest of the astrophysics community, Swartz's interest has been drawn to SN 1993J, the 10th supernova to be discovered in 1993. Type Ib emissions is strange because the two supernova types are distinctly different. A Type II supernova happens when a lone, massive star has burned everything in its core. The furnace inside turns off and the star collapses to become a massive piston that blows most of its mass into space and compresses the core into a neutron star. A Type Ib is believed to result from a star that has somehow lost its entire hydrogen envelope, probably as a result of mass transfer in a binary system, before collapse.