Black holes are formed deep within dying massive stars and they signal a special evolution away from the canonical picture where the star explodes and leaves behind a neutron star. To probe these special evolutions and the formation pathways of black holes is a crucial link between our understanding of stellar evolution and gravitational wave astrophysics.

When neutron stars collide they create both light and gravitational waves. Researchers at Stockholm University are studying these collisions in the hope they will find the answer to fundamental questions – such as how the heaviest elements are formed, and how fast the universe is expanding.

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.

diagnosing the element factories of the Universe

unravelling the nucleosynthetic content of supernovae and kilonovae.

The James Webb Space Telescope will open up a new vista for supernova studies, in particular for their chemistry. This project serves to develop new theoretical models for molecular processes in supernova ejecta, to be able to interpret and analyse the new incoming data.

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.