Supernova Early Warning System

The SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS) is a network of neutrino detectors designed to give early warning to astronomers in the event of a supernova in the Milky Way galaxy. Enormous numbers of neutrinos are produced in the core of a red giant star as it collapses on itself. In the current model the neutrinos are emitted well before the light from the supernova peaks, so in principle neutrino detectors could give advance warning to astronomers that a supernova has occurred and may soon be visible. The neutrino pulse from supernova 1987A was detected 3 hours before the photons.

The current members of SNEWS are Borexino, Super-Kamiokande, LVD, SNO and IceCube.

As of September 2010, SNEWS has not issued any SN alerts.

External links

Official website
Antonioli, P.; et al. (2004). "SNEWS: the SuperNova Early Warning System". New Journal of Physics 6: 114–114. arXiv:astro-ph/0406214. Bibcode 2004NJPh....6..114A. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/6/1/114.
Francis Reddy, "Time for SNEWS", Astronomy 3 June 2005
NOVA podcast about SNEWS (the same in MP3 format)