A spectrograph can be thought of as a speedometer, which is a wonderfully useful instrument in astrophysics research because when speeds can be measured, accelerations and energetics soon follow. There are extreme speeds, extreme accelerations and extreme energies in outer space!
Black holes are greedy, and seek to devour matter that gets too close. Black holes are where gravity has triumphed over space-time. If a black hole is orbiting a star, or vice versa, the black hole will pillage material from the star. Black holes are spectacularly messy eaters though, and the fireworks that result from all this manifest themselves as jets and winds that get spat out at great speeds. The Global Jet Watch spectrographs see it all!
Stars don't like to be alone and their worlds shake when they get close together: throughout our Galaxy stars are often found in multiplets, such as doubles or triples, rather than single stars as in our solar system. These are extraordinary to watch, and wonderful to investigate.
On extreme eccentric orbits, a pair of stars will do an extreme flypast — giving one another the collywobbles as they do so and causing seismic shape changes in the stars as they fly past one another. The Global Jet Watch spectrographs track all the action!
The most massive stars end their lives in an extreme energetic events: supernova explosions. The Global Jet Watch is equipped and on watch to respond to the next supernova in our Galaxy.
Sun-like stars evolve into white dwarfs that can exhibit dramatic explosions: If too much mass piles up on their hard surfaces then a thermonuclear runaway can ensue. The Global Jet Watch loves to study such nova explosions: partly in their own right, and partly as practice for when the next Galactic supernova explodes.
The Global Jet Watch spectrographs are ready!
