Astronomy Colloquium

he probably by far most common thermonuclear explosion to occur in nature is the explosion of a thin layer of material, about the height of the physics building, that has accumulated on the surface of a neutron star, about the size of Minneapolis, in a binary star system - Type I X-ray bursts. I show theoretical models for such outbursts, their very specific mode of nuclear burning unheard of in any other stellar system, as well as their much bigger cousins, the superbursts. I will discuss our current difficulty in understanding how those are made, and possible solutions.