Astronomy Colloquium: Jason Wright

Date: Tue. November 7th, 2017, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm
Location: Sears 552

The Puzzle of Boyajian’s Star

Jason Wright (PSU)

I have been at the center of efforts to understand KIC 8462852, a strange star found during the Kepler mission. It exhibits deep, irregular “dips” or dimming events lasting days, up to 22% in depth, and appears to be dimming secularly on decadal timescales. As ever-more-contrived natural explanations are proposed and explored by my team and others, we continue to put together monitoring and target-of-opportunity programs to catch it “in the act” of dipping and determine the nature of the dips. I will discuss the families of possible solutions for this star, and give an update on its latest activity.