The Golden Era of Transient Astronomy

Abstract

Astronomy has seen a massive increase in the discovery and classification of astrophysical transients, which are fleeting celestial events such as supernovae, flaring black holes, and tidal disruption events. The proliferation of sky surveys has produced an unprecedented data deluge, transforming how the astronomical community approaches research in the digital era. I have worked on various types of transients and how they shape their environment, or vice versa. The first 4 chapters discuss unique transients which provided special insight into the physical mechanisms governing their formation and evolution. Next, I take an in-depth look at how and why white dwarf stars explode as Type Ia supernovae. Finally, I present an overview of the Spectroscopic Classification of Transients (SCAT) survey. SCAT is a spectrophotometric transient survey designed to study the myriad of transient phenomena discovered by photometric sky surveys. I conclude by summarizing the current status of the survey, describing the data reduction pipeline, and highlighting preliminary results.