Date/Time
Date(s) - 25/03/2015
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Title: Light Echoes from Luminous Transients – An Exploration of Asymmetries and Time Evolution

Speaker: Dr. Doug Welch

Institute: McMaster University

Location: ABB 102

Description:

Supernovae and other luminous transients produce such prodigious quantities of light that the very tiny fraction scattered towards Earth by interstellar dust hundreds of light years away can still be studied spectroscopically with large telescopes. In this talk I will review our progress towards understanding the degree of asymmetry of supernova photospheres, recreating lightcurves, and studying centuries of activity of supernova precursors. I will also describe new developments in instrumentation and the improvements in sensitivity and search efficiency that they provide.