Cassiopeia A: Chandra X-Ray Observatory and JWST composite (courtesy of NASA)
Sam Miller
The SaddleBrooke Skygazers Astronomy Club is pleased to host Dr. Azalee Bostroem, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, on Sunday, March 10, at the DesertView Theater, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive, at 7 p.m. In this talk, Dr. Bostroem will discuss her work on projects to characterize the massive stars that explode at the end of their lives (Type II supernovae, e.g., Cassiopeia A). Stars that are more than eight times the mass of the sun end their lives as explosive events called supernovae. Shining as bright as an entire galaxy of stars, these incredibly energetic events create most of the elements in the universe and play a critical role in how galaxies evolve. However, uncertainties in both the end of the stars’ lives and the explosions themselves make it difficult to map the final stages of a star’s life to its supernova explosion. In this talk, she will discuss what scientists do and don’t know about how stars end their lives and what techniques we are using to learn more about this final evolutionary stage.
Dr. Bostroem is an LSST-DA Catalyst Fellow at the University of Arizona where she studies supernovae at all wavelengths, from the X-ray through the radio. She started her training as a high school math teacher but fell in love with astronomy during a master’s program at San Diego State University. From there she worked as a research and instrument analyst for the Space Telescope Science Institute, calibrating the two spectrographs on the Hubble Space Telescope. Although she left the Space Telescope Science Institute in 2014 to begin a PhD in physics at UC Davis, the Hubble Space Telescope still has a special place in her heart. Upon finishing her PhD, she spent a year at the University of Washington as a DiRAC and Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow before moving to Tucson. She misses the ocean but is enjoying the sunny weather, multitudes of hikes, and cycling events.
The SaddleBrooke Skygazers Astronomy Club meets monthly (and typically) on the second Sunday evening at 7 p.m. at the DesertView Theater. The next Star Parties are on Wednesday, March 13, and Thursday, April 11, at the softball field parking lot from 7:15 to 9 p.m. The public is welcome to both. Club and Star Party information can be obtained by emailing Sam Miller at [email protected].