Prof Paul Crowther – Massive Stars

Paul joins us from the University of Sheffield (where he wears the crown of HoD and Professor of Astrophysics) to give us an overview of massive stars, from the birth in rich star forming regions such as the Orion Nebula and the Tarantula Nebula, through their relatively short lifetimes, initially as luminous blue stars through to their late states either as enormous red supergiants or compact, hot Wolf-Rayet stars, and their eventual demise as supernovae, leading to neutron star or black hole remnants. Recent developments including the key role played by binary evolution will be emphasised, together with the connection to other astrophysical transients such as gravitational wave sources and kilonovae.

Paul Crowther is Head of Department and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield. He is an observational astronomer, having previously used Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel and ESO’s VLT. His research interests focus largely upon the most massive stars in the Universe. Previous public engagement activities have included Sounds of the Cosmos with the Sheffield Rep Orchestra, performed at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre and Latitude Festival 2015.

Image: ESO/M. Kornmesser