The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) - one of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III programs -- is using near-infrared spectra of ~100...
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TalkDiscovery of Two Rare Highly-Magnetized B Stars in the APOGEE Survey
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TalkDistances to galaxies from the brightest stars in the Universe
Measuring distances to galaxies and determining their chemical compositions are two fundamental activities in modern extragalactic astronomy, in that they help...
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TalkDouble white dwarfs and the connections between hot subdwarfs, R CrB stars and extreme helium stars
The proposal that the merger of two white dwarfs would form a major channel for the formation of hot subdwarfs has been current for over two decades. Naturally...
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TalkDynamos, the drivers of solar and stellar activity
Following Cowling's anti-dynamo theorem of 1933, there was a long period during which the very existence of dynamos was unclear. Even with the emergence of...
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TalkExploring the local universe with massive stars
Massive stars dominate the light output of entire galaxies, with luminosities in excess of 10 5 L⊙. This makes them powerful probes with which to study a range...
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TalkFinding extra-solar planets in the presence of stellar jitter
The RV method is responsible for discovering the majority of planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. However, one problem with this technique is that...
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TalkFingerprints of our Neighbors: A Spectral Library for Characterizing the Coldest Stars, Brown Dwarfs and Extrasolar Planets.
Over the past two decades, advances in infrared instrumentation have allowed us to identify a vast and previously unseen population of low-temperature stars...
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TalkFormation history of old open clusters constrained by detailed asteroseismic analysis of red giant stars observed by Kepler
Stars originate by the gravitational collapse of a turbulent molecular cloud of a diffuse medium, and are often observed to form clusters. Stellar clusters...
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TalkFrom the blue cloud to the red sequence (and over the green valley): investigating the evolution of galaxies over cosmological timescales
In the local universe, galaxies fall into one of two populations: a star-forming blue cloud and a red sequence lacking star formation. At redshift z ~ 1.5...