Brendan M. O'Connor
Brendan O'Connor
Astrophysicist
McWilliams Fellow
Carnegie Mellon University
About Me
Hi, I'm Brendan. I am a McWilliams Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University studying cosmic explosions. My research is in the field of time domain and transient astrophysics. In particular, I am interested in the formation and evolution of high energy transients and their progenitors. I use a variety of optical, infrared, and X-ray observatories to study transient phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum.
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Research
Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy
Gamma-ray Bursts
Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are bright flashes of gamma-rays detected by space satellites. My main interest is in short GRBs, which have a duration less than 2 seconds. These bursts are caused by the coalescence and cataclysmic merger of a system of two neutron stars. Their merger sites represent a main channel for the production of heavy elements in the Universe. These elements are formed through the r-process by the rapid decompression of neutron rich ejecta. The observational signature of this ejecta is known as a kilonova.
Credit: CAS
Fast X-ray Transients
The 2024 launch of China's Einstein Probe (EP) unleashed a new view of the high-energy transient Universe. The wide-field soft X-ray survey is probing a previously unexplored parameter space of low luminosity explosions that emit primarily at X-ray instead of gamma-ray wavelengths. Previous generations of high-energy transient satellites were not capable of detecting these explosions in large numbers. EP transients are providing robust evidence for a continuum of stellar explosions that differs significantly from the historically more common, more standard gamma-ray bursts.
Contact
Carnegie Mellon University
The McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics
Credit: M51/Lowell Discovery Telescope/B. O'Connor