AAVSO Webinar, with Dr. Luisa Rebull and Dr. Margarita Karovska

This webinar features two women astronomers presenting on their research.
First, Dr. Luisa Rebull, "Stellar Rotation in Young Clusters using K2 and TESS." K2 has provided a phenomenal opportunity to study properties of stars in clusters, particularly young low-mass stars. The high-precision photometry provided by K2 allows us to probe stellar variability to lower masses and lower amplitudes than has ever been done before. The light curves have yielded thousands of rotation rates, and revealed far greater diversity in light curves than was anticipated. Now that we have TESS data, we can add the Upper Centaurus-Lupus (UCL) and Lower Centaurus-Crux (LCC) young moving groups. In her talk, Dr. Rebull reviews the K2 results and presents early results from UCL/LCC.

Second (@ 56:20), Dr. Margarita Karovska, "Why is it important to observe/monitor LPVs?" Long Period Variables (LPVs) are evolved stars (cool giants and supergiants) that show significant variations (including photometric, spectral, and variations of other physical characteristics) on time scales ranging from days to centuries (as shown, for example, by the AAVSO long term monitoring of their light curves). Some of these stars show regular periodic brightness changes due to pulsation, while some show irregular variations, the causes of which have not yet been determined. Based on years of multi-mission, multi-wavelength studies, including ground- and space-based observations, Dr. Karovska summarizes the results with three words: "fascinating, unexpected, and surprising!" The seemingly regular behaviour of many LPVs is anything but that when studied on a time scale of years! Dr. Karovska highlights some recent results with emphasis on the critical role of the AAVSO long term LPV observing/monitoring in enabling these discoveries and on the potential for many future discoveries.

Explore AAVSO and find out how YOU can make a meaningful contribution to science at aavso.org (our Long-Period Variables Observing Section is at https://www.aavso.org/aavso-long-period-variable-section)

Видео AAVSO Webinar, with Dr. Luisa Rebull and Dr. Margarita Karovska канала AAVSO HQ