Professor Larry Molnar Lecture: "Twists and Turns in the Hunt for a Merging Binary Star"

Physics and Astronomy Professor Larry Molnar will give a seminar entitled "Twists and Turns in Hunt for a Merging Binary Star" in SB 110 on Tuesday, October 2 at 3:45.

Come join us in SB 110 at 3:45 on Tuesday, October 2, when Professor Larry Molnar will explain the recent 'plot twist' in his research into a binary star system that he and his researchers have tracked and studied closely over several years.  

In Molnar's own words:

"The path of scientific inquiry is rarely a straight line.  Our hunt for a merging binary star system picked up intensity in 2013 when archival data showed a decrease in the orbital period of the system KIC 9832227.  At stake was the possibility of predicting the timing of the red nova outburst that can follow stellar merger.  This presentation will track the dramatic twists and turns of our subsequent work.  We published a specific prediction in 2017 after gathering four years of data that supported our idea.  Then this September we retracted this prediction following a reanalysis of the earliest archival data.  But now we are on a path to make some new predictions that have a better foundation and which can be tested in the coming year."

Location details

Science Building Room 110