Planetary Tales from the Stellar Crypt: Exoplanets Surviving the Death of their Host Star
John Debes, Space Telescope Science Institute
What happens to a planetary system when its host star exhausts its fuel and dies? For most sun-like stars, their deaths end in a whimper and not a bang, leaving behind a stellar corpse called a white dwarf. Many orbiting planets may survive these relatively gentle death throes, and can have observable influences on their host white dwarf. This unique sub-field of astronomy has arisen from the stellar crypt and produced some exciting results over the last few years. It seems that dead stars do tell tales.
Host: Dr. Frank Summers
Recorded live on March 1, 2016 at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, USA
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