Welcome to Science by the Slice! We're excited to host this hybrid event. We'll meet either online or in in-person at 700 Park Offices Drive, (behind the Boxyard) to hear this month's speaker while we enjoy pizza, but space is limited. Online viewers will join live remotely via Sigma Xi's Facebook page. A zoom link will also be sent out to registered attendees.
How to See a Star Explode from Underground
About the talk
When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it collapses and then explodes as a supernova, which can shine as brightly as an entire galaxy for a brief time. Right before the explosion, the collapsed star emits a brilliant (but almost invisible) flash of neutrinos. Neut
rinos are ghostly particles that can fly through matter as if it were transparent. I will describe how we canc atch some of these neutrinos in vast underground detectors. The dying star will also send out a burst of gravitational waves-- ripples in space-time. These astrophysical messengers will give us an early warning of the impending supernova. They will also give us an unprecedented inside view of the collapse and explosion in real time, and potentially even allow us to witness the birth of a black hole.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Kate Scholberg is the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics and a Bass Fellow at Duke University. Scholberg's broad research interests include experimental elementary particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology; her specific interests in neutrino physics lie at the intersection of these areas. Scholberg is a member of the Super-Kamiokande, Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) neutrino experimental collaborations. She is the spokesperson of the COHERENT experiment, a neutrino scattering experiment located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a co-founder of SNEWS (the SuperNova Early Warning System), a global network of neutrino observatories. Scholberg received a bachelor's in physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology. She joined Duke University in 2004.
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Virtual attendees:
Use the following URL to join Science by the Slice live on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SigmaXi/
We will also provide a zoom link to view the event to registered attendees. Please RSVP only once. RSVP to either join in person or virtually.
Science by the Slice is free and open to any interested members of the public, as well as science journalists and science communicators of all stripes. Feel free to extend this invitation to anyone who might want to attend.
Did you miss past Science by the Slice events? Check out our videos and podcasts of previous speakers: http://www.americanscientist.org/science/
Talks are co-organized with Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC). The RTP chapter of Sigma Xi is a co-organizer and co-sponsor, and encourages any interested scientists to get involved with the chapter and its upcoming events.
