TOPIC
Large ground and space-based photometric, spectroscopic, and astrometric surveys now coming online are changing the astronomical landscape, expanding our tools for the exploration of the universe. Variable astronomical sources can now be harvested by the thousands, including RR Lyrae, Cepheids, Miras, eclipsing binaries, etc., massively exploring both the time domain and the multiwavelength domain. This is a revolution in studies of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, which can be explored now in unprecedented detail.
The VOSS 2018 will train the next generation of researchers on the marvels of big data, time domain astrophysics, and variability surveys. We are building an exciting programme that links variable stars with photometric and spectroscopic surveys, and then gives an overview concerning the impact that stellar astrophysics has on current astrophysical and cosmological open problems. In addition, we will address the use of variable stars as distance indicators, as tracers of stellar populations in galaxies, as probes of stellar evolution, and as laboratories for fundamental physics.
MAIN THEMES
- Theory of stellar pulsation and evolution: pulsation and evolutionary properties of radial variables (RR Lyrae; classical, type II, anomalous Cepheids; SX Phoenicis).
- Stellar kinematics: radial velocities and proper motions.
- Variable star searches in large databases: Current statistics, sample biases, variability detection, period search techniques, variable star classification,
- Variables as stellar population tracers: pulsating stars vs eclipsing binaries. Distance indicators (RR Lyse, Cepheids, Miras and LPVs), Rare variability: Microlensing and Transients.
- Current and future large astronomical databases: 2MASS, Gaia, VVV, OGLE, Kepler, GLIMPSE, WISE, WFIRST, LSST, SDSS, TESS, PLATO, EUCLID, PS2.
List of the Faculty
CONTACT
Specola Vaticana
V-00120 Vatican City State - Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39 06 698.85266 FAX: +39 06.698.84671
e-mail:
