Physics and Astronomy Colloquium – Dr. Gail Schaefer

About the event

The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites you to a colloquium featuring Gail Schaefer, Director of the CHARA Array, Georgia State University. Dr. Schaefer’s talk, “Imaging Stellar Surfaces with the CHARA Array” will be held Thursday, April 4, at 12:10 pm in Webster 11.

This will be a remote talk.

Zoom available for those unable to attend in person.

The CHARA Array combines the light of six 1-meter telescopes at optical and near-infrared wavelengths with baselines ranging from 34 to 331 meters to achieve milliarcsecond resolution. The Array is used to measure the sizes of stars, image stellar surfaces, detect close binary companions, and resolve the inner structure of circumstellar disks. I will give an overview of stellar interferometry and highlight recent science results obtained with the CHARA Array. I will discuss opportunities to apply for open access time and report on recent developments to add a seventh mobile telescope to expand the maximum baseline of the array.

physics@wsu.edu/colloquium