The commonly observed Type Ia supernovae likely occur when one
star in a binary undergoes a sudden detonation triggered by the
transfer of mass from a closely orbiting companion. Due to the
short orbital period of 5-10 minutes of many explosion...
I will present a combination of three observational
techniques—astrometry, radial velocity, and direct imaging—to
discover, weigh, and characterize massive exoplanets and brown
dwarfs. Only a few exoplanets have both measured masses (from
radial...
Since the revolutionary discovery of gravitational wave (GW)
emission from a binary black hole merger in 2015, the remarkable GW
detectors LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA have detected at least ninety
compact object mergers. These events are transforming...
Quasars at cosmic dawn are powerful probes to the formation and
growth of early supermassive black holes in the universe, their
connections to high-redshift galaxy and structure formation, and
the evolution of the intergalactic medium at the epoch...
Supernovae, tidal disruption events and merging neutron stars
can provide a wealth of physical insights from nuclear physics to
cosmology; they can teach us about the creation of the elements,
the formation of compact objects, accretion processes...
Over a five-year period, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic
Instrument (DESI) will spectroscopically classify nearly 40 million
galaxies and quasars over 1/3 of the sky and to redshifts z 3.5.
The DESI collaboration has completed measurements of the...
The possibility that some of the black holes in the universe
have a non-stellar origin and that they play a significant role in
cosmology - including being some or all of the dark matter - is
both timely and intriguing. I will review the status of...
Stellar streams form as dwarf galaxies and globular clusters
tidally disrupt around their host galaxy. To date, more than 100
streams have been detected around our Galaxy. In this talk, I will
begin with an overview of how streams form, how they can...
There is a revolution afoot in our understanding of supermassive
black holes (SMBHs), that is reshaping our view of their formation,
growth and influence on cosmic architecture. This talk will
spotlight three recent breakthroughs that have enriched...
