Monday, November 13, 2023 at 12:15-1:15pm

JiLA Auditorium

Melinda Soares-Furtado, NASA Hubble Fellow

"Worlds & Suns in Context: The Role of Age and Environment"

Abstract:

In this talk, I discuss the interactions between stellar hosts and planetary companions, including the ejection and ingestion of stellar companions. Drawing insights from stellar evolutionary models and observational survey data (photometric and spectroscopic), I present my team's latest discoveries as we seek to identify unambiguous ingestion-derived chemical tracers. Such tracers make it possible to identify engulfment events long after the original event has transpired and offer a critical opportunity to probe bulk planetary composition. Looking forward, infrared space-based missions will soon make it possible to investigate young, free-floating planets for the presence of satellites. These data will help to further constrain the formation pathways and dynamical histories of these starless worlds.

Back to Speakers