The link between supernovae and star births

Abstract

"May the force be with..." an interstellar cloud, made of gas and dust. The release of the shockwave from a supernova explosion causes this cloud to collapse, due to its immense gravitational force. Then, a star is born. This model is suggested in the Nebular Hypothesis. In this project, we aim to observe a range of supernova remnants (SNRs) to test how efficient the method is, by examining the interaction between the clouds and the aftermath of a supernova. To achieve our goals, we propose to observe the edge of the expanding shockwave of 10 supernova remnants. We can expect to identify a plethora of newborn stars there and infer whether these areas are ideal for the formation of a star. Based on how many supernova remnants contain newborn stars, we can estimate that the Nebular Hypothesis efficiency is: not efficient (below 3), moderately efficient (from 3 to 6), and highly efficient (from 6 to 10).

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stefan Cartledge