Brighton Astro: The Second-Life of Planetary Systems

Defying the notion of the silent graveyard, planetary systems refuse to die quietly. Instead, a significant fraction show one or more signs of dynamical reanimation, with strong indications of general mayhem during the last stages of stellar evolution. The lecture will give a brief tour of these evolved and active planetary systems, which provide major insights into rocky planetary bodies in particular.

These descendants of intermediate-mass stars reveal characteristics of their former planetary systems in ways unattainable by conventional methods using main-sequence stars. In particular, the metal pollution observed in white dwarf stars reveals the bulk chemistry of entire planetesimals or planetary fragments, including compelling evidence for Earth-like chemistry, planetary differentiation, and believe it or not – water. This talk will cover some of the highlights of the active planetary graveyard, including variability and transient behaviour.

Jay Farihi hails from Southern California, where he did his PhD at UCLA searching for substellar companions to white dwarf stars using infrared imaging. He held a postdoctoral position at Gemini Observatory on the big island of Hawaii, and was a senior fellow at the Institute for Astronomy in Cambridge. He was awarded an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship in 2012 and joined the faculty of UCL in 2013, where he is now professor. He is best known for his role in establishing the field of planetary systems orbiting white dwarfs, especially using infrared observations to establish the presence and nature of their planetesimal debris disks, and how these link to the heavy element pollution seen in their atmospheres. He enjoys hardcore punk and metal, is a whisky fanatic, loves to travel, and has spent over 150 nights on summits pursuing his own research programs.

If you sign up via meetup but can no longer attend, please update your status to say that you are no longer attending so that someone on the waiting list gets a place.

Please only come along if you’ve signed up, as we’re limited on space so won’t be able to fit anyone else in.

Wagner Hall is on on Regency Road, Brighton.
Attendance is free, but we would be grateful if those of you who are able to could donate a few pounds to help cover the cost of hiring this event space. We will have a card reader and a money box you can drop your donations in on the night. We also have a bank account you can donate to electronically.

Please note that the venue has a bar.