Megastars shredded by black holes offer new type of cosmic explosion

astronomer: A scientist who works in the field of research that deals with celestial objects, space and the physical universe.

astrophysics: An area of astronomy that deals with understanding the physical nature of stars and other objects in space. People who work in this field are known as astrophysicists.

black hole: A region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation (including light) can escape.

celestial: (in astronomy) Of or relating to the sky, or outer space.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

computer model: The simulation of some real event to predict one or more likely outcomes from that event. 

cosmic: An adjective that refers to the cosmos — the universe and everything within it.

gravity: The force that attracts anything with mass, or bulk, toward any other thing with mass. The more mass that something has, the greater its gravity.

link: A connection between two people or things.

mass: A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down — basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.

matter: Something that occupies space and has mass. Anything on Earth with matter will have a property described as “weight.”

radiant: (adj.) A term for something that is radiated, such as heat or some other type of radiation.

radiation: (in physics) One of the three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are conduction and convection.) In radiation, electromagnetic waves carry energy from one place to another. Unlike conduction and convection, which need material to help transfer the energy, radiation can transfer energy across empty space.

star: The basic building block from which galaxies are made. Stars develop when gravity compacts clouds of gas. When they become hot enough, stars will emit light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The sun is our closest star.

supernova: (plural: supernovae or supernovas) A star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most (or sometimes all) of its mass.

telescope: Usually a light-collecting instrument that makes distant objects appear nearer through the use of lenses or a combination of curved mirrors and lenses. Some, however, collect radio emissions (energy from a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum) through a network of antennas.

transient: Term for an event lasting or taking place for a relatively short period of time.

ultraviolet: A portion of the light spectrum that is close to violet but invisible to the human eye.

wavelength: The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. It’s also one of the “yardsticks” used to measure radiation. Visible light — which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves — includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.

X-ray: A type of radiation analogous to gamma rays, but having somewhat lower energy.