Rutgers University Astrophysics Seminar

Abstract: Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) mark some of the most energetic, luminous, and dazzling ends of massive stars and neutron star binaries alike. They've been observed to be well separated by their gamma-ray duration into "short" and "long" (and sometimes even "ultralong"), with this binary classification being seemingly well described by binary progenitor paths: long GRBs come from massive stellar deaths, while short GRBs come from compact object mergers. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have similarly been long-studied and are oft used as standardizable candles for cosmology. While the community agrees that most SNe Ia are created from the explosion of a white dwarf star in a binary, research is still on-going on the identity of the binary, the mass and composition of white dwarf, and the explosion mechanism, speed, and location. In this talk, I share with you some of my ongoing work involving James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of the longest GRB ever, GRB 250702B, and the peculiar, calcium-rich SN 2024kce.