Massive stars are rare beasts, which makes understanding their properties all the more difficult. Today I will discuss a particular type of massive star - the Wolf-Rayet star. These stars are the record breakers in stellar astronomy, boasting the highest masses, strong stellar winds and high mass-loss rates. Using X-Ray astronomy we can search and find these stars and based on their X-Ray characteristics we can infer which of these stars reside in binaries. I will discuss the importance of binaries and how they can help derive one of the most useful, but elusive, stellar properties; mass.

About the speaker: Katie Tehrani

Our speaker tonight is Katie Tehrani and she is a second year PhD student in the astronomy department at the University of Sheffield. I’m an observational astronomer and study massive stars that are found outside of the Milky Way. 

Katie began studying astronomy in 2011 when she started her undergraduate degree at the University of Sheffield - She was lucky enough to be able to continue studying here as a postgraduate PhD student! Katie is a  keen traveller, and through her studies recently had the opportunity to visit New Zealand to attend a massive stars conference. Other hobbies include baking and long walks trying (fruitlessly) to tire out her puppy - Bella!