The Short and Complicated Lives of Massive Stars: From young twins to Gravitational Waves Sources

by Selma de Mink (Amsterdam)

Tuesday 20 Mar 2018, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

FA32

Massive stars are rare and short-lived. Nevertheless, massive stars played crucial roles through cosmic time, enriching their host galaxies with freshly synthesized chemical elements, ionizing the intergalactic medium, giving rise to spectacular explosions as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts that mark the birth of neutron stars and black holes. Massive stars are nearly always found in very close pairs, implying the the majority of them will interact with a binary companion before ending their live. Such interactions can have many dramatic consequences for both stars. I will highlight some of the recent exciting developments in our understanding of the turbulent lives, deaths and after-lives of massive stars. I will also briefly discuss the impact of the recent gravitational wave detections and what we can learn from these and future detections about the lives of their massive star progenitors. (Host: Ragnhild Lunnan)