ASX Star Talk: Planets Around Expired Stars

Professor Yanqin Wu investigates the formation and evolution of planets, both inside and outside our own Solar System. Her current attention is devoted to a recently discovered puzzle, the presence of planetary systems around white dwarf stars, stars that have lived through their lives and are cooling off quietly in their cemeteries. The observational evidence is difficult to square with our current knowledge about the extra-solar planetary systems, and perhaps a new picture is required.

Yanqin Wu is a professor of theoretical astrophysics in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. She obtained her BSc from University of Science & Technology of China and her doctorate from the California Institute of Technology. Her research interests focus on planets in our Solar system and beyond. She studies their internal structure, their dynamics, and their formation sites — the proto-planetary discs. Her overall goal is to understand how planets come about, this includes studying how environmental effects come into play, what is the interior structure of planets, etc.

This event is part of Science Literacy Week
Science Literacy Week highlights Canada’s outstanding scientists and science communicators from coast to coast. Its goals are to showcase the excellence and diversity of Canadian science and to show how exciting science is. Be it as simple as a science-themed book display encouraging people to read something a little different to multi-day events, the week offers something for everyone. For one week in September (September 19-25, 2016), libraries, universities, museums and other partners put on a spectacular nationwide festival of science. Find out more at: http://scienceliteracy.ca/
 
Telescope observing: 9:00–10:00pm on the 14th floor of McLennan Physical Laboratories (weather permitting)

Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Not required
Organized by: Astronomy & Space Exploration Society
Location: University of Toronto, McLennan Physical Laboratories, Room TBA, 60 St George St., Toronto, ON  M5S 1A7

http://asx.sa.utoronto.ca/2016/09/11/star-talk-planets-around-expired-stars/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1131216973605302/