Abstract:
Astronomers can be frustrated by bad weather and day-light when trying to make observations of celestial sources. Within the last 20 years a series of satellites have been launched allowing astronomers to obtain virtually uninterrupted observations of stars lasting months or even years. I will outline some of the results from these observations which have allowed us to probe into the core of stars and the discovery of thousands of planets orbiting other stars.
Bio:
Gavin obtained his PhD in X-ray observations of accreting binary stars from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Lab, after which he spent two years at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Returning to MSSL for more than ten years, he then moved to Armagh Observatory. His interests include accreting binaries, stellar activity, transients and exo-planets and uses multi-wavelength observations from radio to X-ray bands. He is the Community Scientist for ESA’s Plato mission due to be launched early in 2027.