Devoured Worlds: The Search for Planet-Ingesting Stars in Open Clusters

Melinda Soares-Furtado will talk about the observational signatures that are left behind when stars consume their own close-orbiting planetary companions, the ways in which we are searching for these events, and why finding cannibal stars in open clusters is of critical importance to our understanding of stellar and planetary astrophysics.

Dr. Melinda Soares-Furtado is a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has a BS in Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysical Science from Princeton University...

Trifid Nebula (M20) – Photo by Jeffrey Shokler

The Trifid presents the unusual combination of an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula all in one object! The Trifid lies 5,200 light years from us in the constellation Sagittarius.

Messier 21 (M21; NGC 6531) is the beautiful, small open cluster containing 57 stars that is visible to the upper left of the Trifid. M21 is 3,900 light years from us.

Canon 5D Mark II (astromodified; Baader UV/IR cut)
Stellarvue 130EDT (f7)
Celestron CGEM mount
1250 ISO
20x4min subexposures (80min/1.3hr total integration)
Guided (Lacerta MGEN II)
PixInsight (calibrated, registered, stacked, post-processed)
Photoshop (finish processing)