Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Runaway Universe

Some of the most energetic and fascinating objects in the universe are exploding stars known as supernovae. These huge outbursts come from the violent deaths of stars and can briefly become brighter than the entire galaxy that contains them. The atoms needed to build life are forged inside stars and then scattered across space during these explosions.

In this talk, Dr. Jeffrey Silverman, who earned his PhD in Astrophysics at UC Berkeley studying supernovae with Professor Alex Filippenko, explains why these events matter so much to science. Observations of distant supernovae provided the first evidence that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up rather than slowing down, a completely unexpected discovery tied to one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in modern physics: dark energy.

Silverman, now a data scientist and longtime science communicator, brings both his astrophysics background and a talent for public outreach to this exploration of dying stars and the mysteries they leave behind.