I will discuss insights from analytic and numerical models of
galactic chemical evolution and observations of Milky Way elemental
abundances from the SDSS APOGEE survey. Under generic model
assumptions, abundances and abundance ratios approach an...
In the solar system as elsewhere, we learn most from the
unexpected. I will describe three recent observational projects
challenging existing ideas about solar system objects, and
provoking new ones. The freaks are an interstellar object
(‘Oumuamua)...
Building genuinely a priori models of galaxy formation in a
cosmological context is one of the grand challenges of modern
astrophysics. Most large volume simulations of galaxy formation
currently adopt phenomenological scaling relations to model...
Surveys of young stellar objects (YSOs) populating nearby molecular
clouds are bringing us closer to an integrated picture of star and
cluster formation, one that incorporates processes spanning many
orders of magnitude in size, from accretion on...
The advanced detectors of gravitational waves detected several
black hole binary mergers one neutron star merger. Such binaries
are either formed by evolution of massive binary systems or through
dynamical processes in dense stellar systems. I...
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will generate a data deluge:
millions of transients and variable sources will need to be
classified from their light curves. Photometric LSST Astronomical
Time-series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC) brings a...
A large number of close-in super-Earths have now been
discovered. These planets are most likely formed while the
proto-planetary disks are still alive, hence the title of this
talk. I will report some recent observational results, regarding
their...
CHIME is a new interferometric telescope at radio frequencies
400-800 MHz. The mapping speed (or total statistical power) of
CHIME is among the largest of any radio telescope in the world, and
the technology powering CHIME could be used to build...
