Flamsteed Astronomy Society

Dr Stacey Habergham

Massive stars, at least eight times the mass of the Sun, lead very short lives which come to a dramatic end in a huge explosion, a supernova. Supernovae are amongst the most violent, energetic, and beautiful events in the Universe, and themselves represent physics at the extremes, the like of which could never be recreated here on Earth. Although these events are rare, they have shaped the Universe we live in – creating most of the elements of which we, the planets, and all current stars are made of. They can, however, also help us to probe star formation in the Universe by utilising their short lifetimes, and the immense brightness of each explosion, leading us back in time to galaxies more and more distant. The talk specifically looks at the role of supernovae in helping to probe the differences in star formation within normal spiral galaxies, like the Milky Way, and colliding galaxy systems, like the Antennae galaxy, by analysing over 400 galaxies in the local Universe containing these explosions. Can this tell us anything about the way galaxies form and evolve and can the galaxy help us to understand the stars’ lives prior to explosion?

Stacey Habergham has a masters and PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University. Her research area is in the study of the local environment of core-collapse supernova explosions, as a tool to help understand the progenitor stars leading to these varied explosions. She is the manager of an astronomy outreach project known as the National Schools’ Observatory ran by Liverpool John Moores University, which gives schools across the UK and Ireland free access to the world’s largest robotic telescope, the Liverpool Telescope. She is originally from Bradford in West Yorkshire where she completed her GCSEs and A Levels at Queensbury High School. Following her undergraduate degree she undertook a PGCE in Secondary Science, before being drawn back into Astrophysics and carrying out her PhD and a post-doctoral research post. She now combines her love of astronomy and education by continuing to do some research, whilst spending most of her time communicating science to the public and schools.