Douglas Gies
Georgia State University, GA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Massive stars shed huge amounts of material through powerful winds, and this mass loss shapes how they live and die. It affects their atmospheres, the kinds of supernova explosions they produce, and whether they end as neutron stars or black holes.
- Fields
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
- Topics
massive stars
stellar winds
mass loss
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Measure mass-loss rates of massive stars by comparing CHARA Array interferometric observations, which combine several telescopes for fine detail, at different wavelengths using the new SPICA visible-light instrument.
- Track variability in stellar winds over days to years, documenting changes linked to stellar rotation and shocked gas structures.
- Determine accurate stellar radii by combining CHARA measurements with independent distances, and test models of stellar atmosphere temperatures and gas properties.
More about the research
Most stars appear only as points of light, so their winds are hard to observe directly. This project uses a telescope array that sharpens the view enough to resolve the inner winds of massive stars.
Why it matters
Measuring how massive stars lose mass helps astronomers predict how these stars evolve, which supernovae they produce, and whether they leave behind neutron stars or black holes. This is basic science. The resulting stellar radii and wind measurements will test and refine models of stellar atmospheres used across astrophysics.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Benjamin Williams
University of Washington, WA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Measure delay time distributions, the time between star formation and the appearance of each object type, for Wolf-Rayet stars, stripped stars and supergiants in resolved Local Group galaxies.
Christopher Kochanek
Ohio State University, OH·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Measure what fraction of massive-star core collapses fail and form a black hole without a supernova, by monitoring evolved stars in 27 nearby galaxies with the Large Binocular Telescope.
Jennifer Van Saders
University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Model how spin is transported inside K dwarfs by fluid motions, gravity waves and magnetism, using new magnetic braking laws in the Yale Rotating Stellar Evolution Code (YREC) to explain their unexpectedly fast spin and lasting activity.
The school
Georgia State University: 9 labs on PI Pages, $241M a year on research, 300 research doctorates a year.
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