Description:

Over the past two decades, the advent of systematic time-domain optical imaging surveys has opened a new window of discovery to the universe. These surveys have succeeded in finding an ever-increasing number of "things that go blink in the night." However, our ability to discover and characterize new astronomical phenomena in this sea of possibilities requires selective application of our limited follow-up resources. I will present several case studies from our experiences with events of such diverse origins as the most luminous supernovae in the universe and accretion phenomena associated with supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies, including the tidal disruptions of stars. The lessons drawn from these previous experiences will enable future discoveries with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will start operations in less than five years, as well as multi-messenger studies of sources of gravitational waves and neutrinos.

Speaker: Ryan Chornock, Ohio University

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics