mardi 24 novembre 2015, par Paul N. Stewart (University of Sydney)
Mardi 1er dĂ©cembre 2015 à 11h00 , Lieu : Salle de confĂ©rence du bâtiment 17
The multi-national, multi-billion-dollar, Cassini mission has resulted in amazing insights into the complex Saturn system, dramatically improving our understanding of the planet, and its moons and rings. One particularly successful method employs the observation of bright stars as the planet’s rings pass in front, allowing the study of the ring system. In this presentation I will demonstrate how such observations can also be used to investigate the stars themselves.
The technique is shown to be effective for measuring the spatial and spectral structure of evolved stars, including identification of molecular layers in the stellar atmosphere. It enables the recovery of high-angular-resolution 2D images of the inner regions of complex stellar systems, achieving resolutions not possible with regular telescopes. These observations are demonstrated to help constrain models of the behaviour of Mira variable stars, and to change our understanding of the inner nebula around IRC+10216.
