Scientific rationale

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Supernovae are the most powerful events in the Universe after the Big bang. Far seen, they play a crucial role in cosmology. They are at the origin of the chemical enrichment of the Universe that has led to planets and life. They are also responsible for most of the kinetic energy input in the interstellar medium, triggering star formation and modelling nebulae. As the end point of stellar evolution, they allow one to put some constraints on the last stages of stellar life and shed new light on the evolution of massive stars.

On the theoretical side, the recent development of powerful computational facilities has opened new windows in our understanding of the explosion mechanisms. Observationally, the recent discovery of a wide variety of different events has challenged our views on the progenitor and environment of these events. As such, they deserve a long-due Saas-Fee course, that aims to present the modern landscape of this topic.

Three internationally renowned astrophysicists will present each a 9 hours lecture on the following subjects:

The detail of the lectures is presented here.