When:
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT
Where: Technological Institute, F160, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Pamela Villalovoz
(847) 491-3644
Group: Physics and Astronomy Astrophysics Seminars
Category: Academic
Title: The Evolution, Influence, and Ultimate Fate of Massive Stars: Transient Phenomena and Stellar Astrophysics in the Era of Wide-Field Surveys
Speaker: Maria Drout, Carnegie Institute for Science
Host: Giacomo Terreran
Abstract: An improved understanding of the lifecycle of massive stars benefits every subfield in astrophysics. Through their ionizing radiation, powerful stellar winds, nucleosynthesis, and deaths as supernova (SN) explosions, massive stars give birth to black holes and neutron stars, while stoking the dynamical and chemical evolution of the universe. Although the study of massive stars is one of the oldest subfields in astronomy, the recent advent of wide-field time-domain surveys has launched an upheaval in field of stellar evolution. By opening new regimes of the dynamic sky, we have uncovered new types of astronomical transients, challenged our views on the mass loss that can occur in the final years before core collapse, and expanded our awareness of the range of possible final states in the evolution of massive stars. In this talk, I will highlight on-going efforts to constrain the evolution, influence, and ultimate fate of massive stars, using observations of both transient phenomena and resolved massive star populations in local group galaxies. Throughout, I will use the possible evolutionary history of a close neutron star binary as a theme and motivation.
Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics