Eruptive mass loss and the resulting dramatic luminosity variations occur across all astrophysical systems -- from stars and their planetary companions to compact remnants and accreting supermassive black holes. These events can fundamentally alter evolutionary pathways but are often heavily obscured by dust, rendering them invisible at optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. In this talk, I will present the WISE Transients Project (WTP) -- an all-sky survey of infrared variability built from reprocessed archival data from the NEOWISE mission. Using state-of-the-art image processing, NEOWISE has been transformed into a powerful transient discovery engine, revealing dust-enshrouded eruptions across a vast range of physical scales -- from star–planet interactions to the formation and growth of black holes. I will conclude with a look toward the coming decade of infrared time-domain astronomy, highlighting the role of SPHEREx in delivering an unbiased spectral atlas of infrared transients, the emergence of new ground-based infrared survey capabilities, and the first views of the high-redshift dusty universe with the Roman Space Telescope.
Speaker: Kishalay De, Columbia University
Host: Adam Miller