The Sci-Files – 06/21/2020 – Adam Kawash – The Missing Nova in the Milky Way
June 21, 2020
On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Adam Kawash. Adam is a Ph.D. candidate in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The main research question he is trying to answer is what is the nova rate of the Milky Way? A nova occurs in a double star system when the core of a dead star steals matter from its companion star. If enough matter is accumulated the outside of the dead star can become hot enough for nuclear fusion to occur. This causes an outflow of the accumulated material and the system can increase in brightness by up to a factor of a million. Due to their relative brightness, these events have been found in the Galaxy for centuries by astronomers. However, we still do not have a good idea of how frequently these events occur in the Milky Way. Recently published models predict about 50 novae per year, but even with the emergence of large field surveys in the past couple of decades, we still only find about 10 per year. This mystery of the apparent missing novae is the central topic of his thesis.
MSU Observatory, MSU Abrams Planetarium and Astronomy on Tap host local astronomy events, during the pandemic they are hosting virtual events.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at [email protected]. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!
Chelsie is a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student at Michigan State University. She studies what happens to the extracellular matrix of cells after they have been stressed. She co-hosts "The Sci-Files" with Daniel Puentes. Together they explore the different topics that MSU students research on "The Sci-Files" at WDBM.
Daniel is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where he does research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. His research involves measuring the mass of radioactive nuclei, and how it can tell us how protons and neutrons are arranged inside of a nucleus. This research also helps scientists understand how the elements were created in different stellar environments! At WDBM, he and Chelsie Boodoo co-host The Sci-Files.
