Speaker: Charles Kerton (P&T talk)

Host: Chunhui Chen

Title: The Exciting Star VES 735

Abstract: 

Massive, O-type, stars make up only a small fraction of the billions of stars found in our Galaxy, but they provide most of its luminosity, are heavy element factories, initiate and inhibit star and planet formation, and are the precursors of black holes and neutron stars. Understanding the various mass loss processes associated with O stars is important since the main sequence evolution of these stars is strongly influenced by mass loss. In this talk I present the results of a long-term study of VES 735, a rare O-type star that is undergoing mass loss via a circumstellar disk. Observations from ground-based, space-based, and even airplane-based observatories obtained by my research team have allowed us to examine this process in detail. This research has led to the development of new techniques that can be used to discover and study these stars using long-term all-sky surveys such as the upcoming Large Scale Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera Rubin Observatory.