Astrophysics Seminars

ABSTRACT: We have now reached the point in studying transiting planets that we can begin to examine the Jupiter-class planets as a class of astrophysical objects. At the same time, thanks to Kepler, the number of transiting planets below 10 Earth...

I will present several interesting problems that arise when thinking about how to design gravitational wave telescopes. In describing the solutions to these problems, I will try to convey why I think some of them may be of interest well beyond the...

Many massive stars explode as core-collapse supernovae. Supernova simulations show that the shock wave accompanying formation of the proto-neutron star evolves into a quasi-static accretion shock and it proves difficult to revive its outward...

ABSTRACT: Understanding the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies is one of the exciting frontiers in astronomy. Since the universe was filled with neutral hydrogen at early times, the most promising method for observing the epoch...

As the observational data accumulates, it is becoming possible to place quantitative constraints on the role different physical processes play in the formation and evolution of planetary systems. I will discuss constraints on the role of tidal...

The history of the Galaxy is imprinted in the kinematics and chemical properties of the stars in the stellar halo. Their study allows us partially to reconstruct the Galactic past because the time required for stars in the halo to exchange their...

The vast data base produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey enables the identification and study of rare objects in sample sizes large enough to investigate their ensemble properties. This talk will include an overview of some of the work on...

A stellar mode achieves approximate energy equipartition with the kinetic energy of convective eddies whose correlation times are comparable to its period. The energies of the most visible modes are similar to those of individual granules, or...

We describe a novel mechanism to generate electromagnetic luminosities powered by a black hole battery in an astrophysical circuit with a neutron-star magnet.