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Star Talks: The Beautiful and Unusual Dust Surrounding Wolf-Rayet Binaries

Star Talks: The Beautiful and Unusual Dust Surrounding Wolf-Rayet Binaries

About a half a century ago, some very hot stars were discovered to have dust clouds surrounding them. These stars, called Wolf-Rayet stars, are older massive stars that have lost their hydrogen - both in their cores where fusion happens and in their outer atmospheres that we can observe. The dusty Wolf-Rayet stars all have a large amount of carbon in their winds that we can observe, and the resulting big question was: "how can dust form in parts of space with so much damaging radiation?€ Noel Richardson is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, having been at the Prescott campus since 2019. He works on studying massive binaries, especially Wolf-Rayet systems, using all types of telescopes across the globe and in space. This talk will highlight his favorite work: how dust forms around unusual Wolf-Rayet stars - with results from his research group that have been made with telescopes like JWST, the Keck Observatory (10-m telescopes), the international Gemini Observatory (8-m telescopes), the CHARA Array (6 1-m telescopes that can be combined to be an effective size of a 330-m telescope), and some data from ERAU's campus observatory. Star Talks are held in partnership with Prescott Astronomy Club and presented with funding from Friends of the Prescott Public Library. 

Prescott Public Library
06:00 PM - 07:30 PM on Wed, 4 Feb 2026

Artist Group Info

ask.librarian@prescott-az.gov
Prescott Public Library
215 E. Goodwin St.
Prescott, Arizona 86303
(928) 777-1537
youth.services@prescott-az.gov