ATMoB Business Meeting and Presentation.
Entry to the Philips Auditorium is through the back of the auditorium. From the front doors at the parking lot, head to the right side of the auditorium between the two buildings. Follow the left wall around the corner to reach a door up a small set of stairs.
Speaker: Naiara Patiño
Talk Title: Beneath the Surface: A Guided Tour Through the Physics of Stars
About the Speaker
Naiara Patiño is a second-year Astronomy PhD student at Boston University working with Prof. Catherine Espaillat. Her research centers on protoplanetary disks around young, low-mass stars. She uses multi-wavelength observations from HST, JWST, and ALMA to investigate the vertical chemical structure of these disks, with the goal of understanding the initial composition of planets as they form.
About the Talk
Stars dominate the visible universe, and unlocking their secrets is essential to fields ranging from planetary science to cosmology. Yet our knowledge of stars comes almost entirely from the light they produce. What can photons tell us about the hidden interiors of stars—especially those at the ends of their lives? How do we infer their structure, their energy sources, and their life cycles from afar?
In this talk, Naiara will give a guided tour of the physics that governs stellar interiors, tracing how gravity, pressure, and nuclear fusion power and shape stars over time, and showing why stars serve as the universe’s most powerful natural laboratories.