St
ars appear as mere points of light in the night sky, even through powerful
optical telescopes. So how can we possibly know how big they truly are, or
even what shape they might be? Measurements are vital for understanding ste
llar physics and testing evolutionary models when combined with known stell
ar distances, photometry and spectroscopy.
Our Earth's turbulent atmos
phere typically blurs starlight, preventing ground-based telescopes from me
asuring the true angular sizes of stars. While space telescopes avoid atmos
pheric blurring, even they cannot resolve the disks of most nearby stars.This talk explores optical interferometry, which combines light from mu
ltiple telescopes to bypass atmospheric blurring and achieve ultra-high res
olution (sharp enough to spot a pizza on the Moon). Tonight’s discussion wi
ll include how stellar angular diameters can be used to find stellar radius
and temperature, and crucially, how it reveals the distorted shapes of fas
t-rotating stars, offering unique insights into their physics.
Dr Vicente Maestro is an astrophysicist with a divers
e background. He holds Master's degrees in Fundamental Physics (University
of Seville, 2001) and Astrophysics (University of Granada, 2005), where his
thesis focused on Planetary Nebulae. After a period working in Bayesian In
ference for a known soft drinks brand, he migrated to Australia and earned
his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Sydney in 2014, specializing
in determining fundamental properties of hot stars (primarily main sequenc
e spectral types B and A) using optical interferometry, photometry and spec
troscopy, with key data obtained using the instrument PAVO at the CHARA Obs
ervatory (Mt Wilson, California, USA). Following his time in academia he ha
s worked in the financial sector (Credit Risk Modelling).
Dr Maestro h
as recently returned to his passion for astrophysics and is a member of SAS
I.
St
ars appear as mere points of light in the night sky, even through powerful
optical telescopes. So how can we possibly know how big they truly are, or
even what shape they might be? Measurements are vital for understanding ste
llar physics and testing evolutionary models when combined with known stell
ar distances, photometry and spectroscopy.
Our Earth's turbulent atmos
phere typically blurs starlight, preventing ground-based telescopes from me
asuring the true angular sizes of stars. While space telescopes avoid atmos
pheric blurring, even they cannot resolve the disks of most nearby stars.This talk explores optical interferometry, which combines light from mu
ltiple telescopes to bypass atmospheric blurring and achieve ultra-high res
olution (sharp enough to spot a pizza on the Moon). Tonight’s discussion wi
ll include how stellar angular diameters can be used to find stellar radius
and temperature, and crucially, how it reveals the distorted shapes of fas
t-rotating stars, offering unique insights into their physics.
Dr Vicente Maestro is an astrophy
sicist with a diverse background. He holds Master's degrees in Fundamental
Physics (University of Seville, 2001) and Astrophysics (University of Grana
da, 2005), where his thesis focused on Planetary Nebulae. After a period wo
rking in Bayesian Inference for a known soft drinks brand, he migrated to A
ustralia and earned his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Sydney i
n 2014, specializing in determining fundamental properties of hot stars (pr
imarily main sequence spectral types B and A) using optical interferometry,
photometry and spectroscopy, with key data obtained using the instrument P
AVO at the CHARA Observatory (Mt Wilson, California, USA). Following his ti
me in academia he has worked in the financial sector (Credit Risk Modelling
).
Dr Maestro has recently returned to his passion for astrophysics an
d is a member of SASI.