Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
Nov
5
2025
Nov
5
2025
Description
High Resolution Spectroscopy of RR Lyrae Stars
RR Lyraes are bright low-mass members of the HR Diagram helium core-burning horizontal branch. Their mean absolute magnitudes are all about the same, M_V ~ +0.7, making them attractive targets in Cosmic Distance Ladder studies. But they pulsate on average every half day, changing brightness, radius, spectral appearance by large amounts in the process. This short-term variability has made progress slow on some aspects of RR Lyraes. In this talk I'll describe recent progress on application of high resolution spectroscopy to large samples of RR Lyraes, which has solved many open questions about these multi-population highly evolved stars. Such work is increasing the usefulness of RR Lyraes for Galactic and near-field extragalactic evolutionary studies.
Other Events in This Series
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
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No meeting
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
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12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
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No talk scheduled
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
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No talk scheduled
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
Mar
5
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
No talk scheduled
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
Mar
12
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
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Two talks by Astronomy Department graduate students
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
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Two talks by UT Astronomy graduate students
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm • In Person
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