Star Talk: Astronomical Alchemy

“Astronomical Alchemy” with Dr. Maria Drout

Date & Location: 7:00 PM-8:00 PM Sept. 26, McLennan Physical Laboratories (MP), Room 102, 60 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5S 1A7

Telescope observing: 8:00 PM-9:00 PM on 14th floor of McLennan Physical Laboratories (MP) (weather permitting) — you will be guided to the telescopes.

Abstract: As Carl Sagan once said, “We are made of star stuff.” However, each element has its own astronomical origins story. Elements are created everywhere from the centers of stars, to supernovae explosions, to the Big Bang itself. Dr. Drout will take us on a journey through the periodic table, highlighting how our recent discovery of a ‘kilonova’ associated with the cataclysmic merger of two neutron stars has filled in one of the final pieces of the elemental puzzle—the origin of many of the heaviest elements in the universe.