Baade and Zwicky propose supernovae and neutron stars
Two papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences introduced the term super-nova for a distinct and far more energetic class of stellar explosion, proposed that such events are the transition of an ordinary star into a star composed of closely packed neutrons, and connected them to cosmic rays. The neutron had been identified only two years earlier. The proposal was almost entirely theoretical and went without observational support for thirty-three years.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Neutron star · celestial body · Galactic · not located
- Supernova · phenomenon · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
On Super-Novae; Cosmic Rays from Super-Novae
Introduces the term super-nova, proposes the transition of an ordinary star into a star of closely packed neutrons, and links such events to cosmic rays. Volume and page numbers are deliberately not asserted because they were not confirmed; the content is known through a later PNAS retrospective read via search summary.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 1934 · Partly verified
W. Baade and F. Zwicky, two companion papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1934); reviewed in "Baade and Zwicky: Super-novae, neutron stars, and cosmic rays", PNAS (2015)
Recorded on Neutron star
- A guest star appears in Taurus and is recorded in East Asia
- Baade and Zwicky propose supernovae and neutron stars
- A regularly pulsing radio source is identified
- A pulsar is found inside the Crab Nebula
- SN 1987A: neutrinos from a collapsing core reach Earth
- A neutron-star merger is detected in gravitational waves and light
- A radius is measured for the heaviest known neutron star
- JWST finds the compact object in SN 1987A
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- JWST finds the compact object in SN 1987A · 2024-02-22
- A radius is measured for the heaviest known neutron star · 2021
- A neutron-star merger is detected in gravitational waves and light · 2017-08-17
- SN 1987A: neutrinos from a collapsing core reach Earth · 1987-02-23 ~07:35 UT (neutrinos); optical discovery 1987-02-24
- A pulsar is found inside the Crab Nebula · 1968
- A regularly pulsing radio source is identified · 1967-11-28
- A guest star appears in Taurus and is recorded in East Asia · 1054 (first sighting commonly given as 4 July; contested)