The Dynamic Universe (Free Astronomy Public Lectures)

Presented by Professor Shri Kulkarni on 28th March 2012.

That occasionally new sources ("Stella Nova") would pop up in the heavens was noted more than a thousand years ago. The earnest study of cosmic explosions began in earnest less than a hundred years ago. Stella Novae are now divided into two major families, novae and supernovae (with real distinct classes in each). Equally the variable stars have a rich phenomenology. Together, supernovae and variable stars have contributed richly to key problems in modern astrophysics: distances to galaxies, cosmography and build up of elements in the Universe.

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), an innovative 2-telescope system, was designed to explicitly to chart the transient sky witha particular focus on events which lie in the nova-supernova gap.