Description
Talks related to space telescopes and their discoveries.
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Armin Rest (STScI)09/02/2026, 13:00
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the most complex and sensitive space observatory ever deployed, combining revolutionary engineering with unprecedented scientific capability. With its segmented 6.5-meter primary mirror and suite of infrared instruments, JWST enables observations of the Universe with extraordinary sensitivity and angular resolution. In this talk, I will discuss the key...
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Jaime Luisi (University of Canterbury)09/02/2026, 13:20
Fast infrared transients have not been well explored; however, we now have chance to search this parameter space. With creative analysis techniques, we are using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to search for transients with lifetimes from seconds to minutes. A single exposure from JWST is made up of integrations that are a combination of numerous non-destructive reads. This means that a...
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Manisha Shrestha09/02/2026, 13:40
Massive stars produce the building blocks of life on Earth, such as carbon and oxygen. However, we still do not understand the physical processes responsible for the production of elements heavier than iron, such as gold, via rapid neutron-capture nucleosynthesis (r-process). The first-ever kilonova associated with the gravitational wave event GW170817 demonstrated that binary neutron star...
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Charles Kilpatrick (Northwestern)09/02/2026, 14:00
Every year, dozens of core-collapse supernovae are discovered in nearby galaxies with deep pre-explosion imaging that can be used to detect or place strong limits on the physical nature of their massive star progenitor systems, providing a direct connection between stars and their cataclysmic explosions observed throughout the Universe. I will discuss recent results from the Hubble and James...
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Melissa Shahbandeh (Space Telescope Science Institute)09/02/2026, 14:20
Supernovae are the ultimate beacons of the time domain universe, signaling the cataclysmic end of massive stars and acting as the cosmic alchemists that forge the building blocks of galaxies. As the world of astronomy changes through the arrival of large survey datasets and advanced space based observatories, we are finally able to resolve long standing questions regarding the origin and...
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Conor Larison (STScI)09/02/2026, 14:40
The discovery of the strongly lensed supernova (SN) Refsdal in 2014, and the subsequent measurement of the Hubble constant (H0) from its predicted reappearance, marked a new era in time-delay cosmography. Since 2014, strongly lensed SNe have been discovered at a rate of <1 event per year, but the field has been revolutionized with the arrival of JWST. The Cycle 4 Vast Exploration for Nascent,...
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Michael Albrow (University of Canterbury)09/02/2026, 15:20
The GBTDS is one of the three core community surveys to be undertaken during the first five years after launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Its primary purpose is the detection of Milky Way exoplants by microlensing and transits. However, the survey cadence and area make it useful for extragalactic science, with the obvious caveats of extinction and stellar crowding in the...
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Matthew Siebert (Space Telescope Science Institute)09/02/2026, 15:40
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide a revolutionary measurement of evolving dark energy out to z < 3. The accuracy of this measurement is predicated on the assumption that Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) luminosities do not evolve with redshift. If present, SN Ia luminosity evolution is expected to be most detectable in the dark matter–dominated era of the Universe (z > 1.5); its...
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Matthew Siebert (Space Telescope Science Institute)09/02/2026, 15:40
Despite using Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to precisely measure cosmological parameters, we do not know basic facts about the progenitor systems and explosions. Theory suggests that SN Ia progenitor metallicity is correlated with peak luminosity, but not how quickly it fades, which we use to calibrate the luminosity and measure distances. This effect should lead to an increased Hubble scatter,...
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Ryan Ridden (University of Canterbury)09/02/2026, 16:00
In the last seven years TESS has given us a unique window into the dynamic universe. While intended for exoplanet discovery this telescope has observed all variety of transient and variable across the sky. Over its lifetime TESS has imaged the sky at cadences ranging from 30 minutes to just 200 seconds. In this talk I will give an overview of the time domain science possible with TESS, and...
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Hugh Roxburgh (Curtin University)09/02/2026, 16:20
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has been operating for nearly eight years, repeatedly surveying the entire sky with cadences no slower than 30 minutes. This has produced an enormous, largely unexplored time-domain data set. Using the TESSELLATE pipeline, we can blindly extract transient events on timescales from 200 seconds to four weeks, opening a new window on rapidly...
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Clarinda Montilla (University of Canterbury)09/02/2026, 16:40
For the first time ever, it is possible to obtain well sampled light curves of fast transients, with a plethora of data provided by a range of telescopes. In particular, TESS has a uniquely fast cadence that allows us to observe transients during the rise a, and decay after peak brightness. With detailed light curves built from both high cadence and multi wavelength data, understanding the...
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Mr Koji Shukawa (JHU)09/02/2026, 17:00
Over the past seven years, TESS has provided an unprecedented high-cadence view of the transient universe, yet its scientific potential is currently limited by significant correlated noise and reduction artifacts. These challenges, specifically complex time-varying backgrounds, spacecraft pointing drift, and pixel sensitivity variations, frequently hide the subtle light curve signatures...
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