ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM

The More the Merrier - Stellar Physics in the Era of Stellar, Transient, and Gravitational Wave

Selma de Mink, Scientific Director, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching,

The majority of stars form in binary and multiple systems. To understand the lives and final fates of stars we need to understand these interactions. This is especially true for massive stars whose final fate as neutron stars and black holes. Gravitational wave detections are now starting to reveal their possible final endpoints as merging compact objects, while large stellar and transient surveys are teaching us more and more about the lives and deaths.

In my colloquium, I will cover some fun and possibly important new insights in massive (binary) stars resulting from efforts at the new stellar department at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching and collaborators. After a general introduction to stars and their multiplicity I will touch on the debate of Betelgeuse's rotation rate, the elusive stripped stars that were missing and have now been found, why extremely wide binaries may still interact, why the Blue supergiant are so problematic.

Event Sponsors:

Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy - More events from this Sponsor

For more information, please contact Jim Fuller by email at [email protected] or visit https://www.astro.caltech.edu.