Massive stars (at least 8 times that of the sun) end their lives in spectacular explosions known as supernovae. Modern large-scale supernova surveys are finding new, rare types of cosmic explosions, expanding our view of both possible stellar deaths and supernova explosion physics.
The ZTF project uses a robotic telescope on Palomar in California to search for cosmic explosions like supernovae (exploding stars) or kilonovae (colliding neutronstars). Several groups at the Department of Astronomy and the Department of Physics use these data to understand supernova physics, cosmology or the creation of the heavy elements in the universe.
