Selwyn Times: February 01, 2023

Selwyn Times Wednesday February 1 2023
18
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Quest for answers to the
universe’s fastest explosions
SOLVING THE mystery of
what powers the fastest
explosions in the universe
is a passion for Canterbury
University researcher Dr Ryan
Ridden-Harper.
The astrophysicist and
postdoctoral researcher’s latest
project is taking him to the
extreme ends of physics in a
quest to uncover explanations for
the universe’s fastest explosions,
which space telescopes detect as
flashes or bursts that rapidly fade
away.
These types of transient
astronomical events come and
go so quickly that they are easily
missed and difficult to observe.
Ridden-Harper says while it is
thought exploding stars, massive
neutron stars and black holes
could generate the explosions,
no-one knows for sure what
powers them.
“I’ve always been curious about
how the natural world works,”
he said.
“After I first looked out into
space, the mystery and wonder
captured me. While all aspects
of astronomy are fascinating, I
STAR GAZER: Dr Ryan
Ridden-Harper has been
awarded a grant to research
fast explosions.
PHOTOS: UC, LINKEDIN
found the idea of watching stars
in galaxies millions of
light years away explode
and change before our eyes
incredible. More amazing still
is the extreme energies and
physics that are involved in these
explosions.”
Ridden-Harper has been
awarded a Te Putea Rangahau
Marsden Fast-Start grant
of $360,000 to help extend
knowledge of the phenomena.
“I’m excited to be starting this
project, which represents the
culmination of what I’ve been
working on since I was a PhD
student in 2016,” he said.
“I’ve spent a lot of time
building the tools we need,
and now we’re ready for this
next phase.” The Marsden
grant will be used to kick
start a Canterbury University
astrophysics research group,
supporting a number of students.
Using novel analysis
techniques, the research team
will delve into archival data
from two space telescopes –
Kepler and Nasa’s Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite – to
find previously undetected
transient events and create a
comprehensive survey of the
fastest explosions in the universe.
“Most transient events we
know to exist last for at least a
couple of days,” Ridden-Harper
said.
“With this project, we hope to
find ones that will fade away in
brightness in a day or less down
to an hour or so.
“Working with international
collaborators, we will then sort
through our discoveries to find
fast transients that occurred in
distant galaxies.
“We can then work with our
theoretical astrophysicists to
delve deeper into what could
be powering these really fast
explosions.
“In this project we’ll use
telescopes around the world to
follow up our discoveries. These,
combined with the Kepler and
TESS data, cover large sections
of the sky over a long timeframe,
making this the most in-depth
survey of its kind to date in a
rapidly evolving area
of astronomy.”
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