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Profs & Pints: Cosmic Blasts

Profs and Pints presents: Cosmic Blasts, a look at extreme events in our universe, with Alexander J. van der Horst, assistant professor of astrophysics at the George Washington University.

While most of the universe hums steadily along, fairly unchanged over the course of human existence, there are exceptions out there, objects that experience outbursts and other dramatic variation in a year, a day, or even a fraction of a second. They include some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe, including black holes, neutron stars, and the big cosmic explosions that cause such objects to form.

Finding and observing these big cosmic explosions is a challenging task. But we have made dramatic progress in doing so through new telescopes and satellites, as well as through big increases in computing power that let us process enormous amounts of telescope data. As a result, the study of major cosmic events has become a focus of modern astronomy.

Come learn from an expert how such research is being conducted and what we are learning from it. You'll end up having a much different experience the next time you gaze up at the stars in the night sky.