SUPERNOVAE are among the universe’s most spectacular events, and until now they have always taken astronomers by surprise. But later this year, a detector will begin scouring the skies to alert astronomers hours before the light from a supernova in our galaxy reaches Earth, allowing them to witness, for the first time, the birth of a supernova.
When a massive star collapses at the end of its life, it releases a tremendous blast of energy that blows its envelope into interstellar space. Less than one per cent of this energy is in the form of visible light, and the photons…
