Time-domain astronomy group at Charles University, Prague
Molly Peeples from Space Telescope Science Institute / Johns Hopkins visited us for a week as part of the Role models in physics program supported by the US Embassy in Prague. She gave a talk on
“Exploring the Universe with Space Telescopes and Supercomputers” and a second talk about “The Universe at Low Density: How Cosmic Gas Flows Build Galaxies”. She talked with students.
Together with Petr Kurfürst and Dominika Hubová we visited Ohio State University to present our research and discuss ongoing collaborations. Then we moved to Space Telescope Science Institute for their 2019 Spring Symposium – The Deaths and Afterlives of Stars. We presented posters and learned about news in the field.
Thomas Janka (MPA Garching) visited to give the department colloquium on core-collapse supernova explosions with a sequel science coffee discussion on kicks, fallback, and nucleosynthesis. He also talked with members of the department. Great to have him visit!
I participated in an event organized to honor 100 years of IAU. I argued that joining SDSS-V would be a good idea to complement existing efforts in photometry and spectroscopy of variable stars, and survey involvement like ASAS-SN and LSST. I also suggested that we should form “International research school in astronomy in Prague/Czech Republic” to attract great PhD students. I learned later that others have proposed similar idea in the past. On a related note, I advocated for establishing “Kepler Postdoctoral Fellowship” to bring excellent early career scientists.
Nadia Zakamska (Johns Hopkins) visited our group and the department this week, giving talks on supermassive black holes and exoplanets. She met with students and postdocs and we also discussed some exciting stellar science. The visit was organized with the help of Role Models in Physics small grant from the US Embassy in Prague.
A number of people of from around Prague collectively joined LISA consortium. Excited to see where the quest for gravitational waves takes in 2030s and beyond. Our group now has website czechLISA.cz.
I spoke about core-collapse supernovae and stellar mergers at ELI Beamlines. A lot of interest in radiative shock and their nonlinear thin-shell instability.
I visited for couple weeks IAC at La Palma with the gracious support of the Erasmus+ program Per Aspera Ad Astra Simul and graciously hosted by David Jones. Discussed binary, triple (and quadruple stars), planetary nebulae, luminous red novae and other fun projects.
This week I visited Columbia, Princeton/IAS, Stony Brook (Astronomy seminar) and Center for Computational Astrophysics (lunch talk).
Great meeting in Seattle, where I presented a talk on circumstellar material created by merging stars. Great discussions, meeting new people, ideas for projects.