ASRI member Prof. Noam Soker from the Physics Department is one of this year’s Asher Grant recipients, for his research ‘Jet-powering of bumps in the light curves of erupting stars’.
The research group of Noam Soker has developed the idea that the interaction of fast collimated outflows of gas, called jets, with an ambient gas around some eruptive stars leads to extra emission. The star launches two opposite jets as the figure shows. The collision of a jet with the shell forms a ‘mini-explosion’. The hot gas of this ‘mini-explosion’ cools by emitting part of its energy in the visible band.
This interaction might explain some ‘bumps’ in the light curve. Namely, short periods during which the light emission increases. Noam will apply this process to supernovae (exploding stars) of different kinds. In particular, Noam’s research group will conduct complicated three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with the hope to explain some puzzling types of supernovae.
