Science Results: Stars And Supernovae

by Jonathan Marshall & Joan Schmelz

Paper: Evidence for the Disruption of a Planetary System During the Formation of the Helix Nebula
Marshall, Jonathan P., et al., 2023/01, AJ, 165, 22.

By David Neufeld & Joan Schmelz

Paper: Terahertz Water Masers. II. Further SOFIA/GREAT Detections Toward Circumstellar Outflows, and a Multitransition Analysis
Neufeld, David A., et al., 2021/01, ApJ, 907, 42.

By Emma Beasor

Paper: The Age of Westerlund 1 Revisited
Beasor, Emma R., et al., 2021/05, ApJ, 912, 16.

By José Pablo Fonfría and Joan Schmelz

Paper: Detection of infrared fluorescence of carbon dioxide in R Leonis with SOFIA/EXES
Fonfrí­a, J. P., et al., 2020/11, A&A, 643L, 15.

By Kimberly Ennico Smith

Paper: Astrophysical detection of the helium hydride ion HeH+
Güsten et al. Nature , 17 April 2019, doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1090-x

Using NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an international scientific team discovered that supernovae are capable of producing a substantial amount of the material from which planets like Earth can form.

These findings are published in the March 19 online issue of Science magazine.

"Our observations reveal a particular cloud produced by a supernova explosion 10,000 years ago contains enough dust to make 7,000 Earths," said Ryan Lau of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.