Podcaster: Rob Sparks, Dr. Ken Hinkle & Dr. Dick Joyce
Title: Sakurai’s Object
Organization: NOAO
Links: www.noao.edu ; @NOAONorth
Description: Stellar lifetimes are measured in billions of years, so changes in their appearance rarely take place on a human timescale. Thus an opportunity to observe a star passing from one stage of life to another on a timescale of months to years is very exciting, as there are only a very few examples known. One such star is Sakurai’s Object (V4334 Sgr). This podcast will examine the history of Sakurai’s Object from its discovery in the 1990’s through recent exciting observations.
Bio: Rob Sparks is a science education specialist in the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) group at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and works on the Galileoscope project (www.galileoscope.org), providing design, dissemination and professional development. He blogs at halfastro.wordpress.com.
Dr. Ken Hinkle is staff scientist at NOAO. He specializes in instrumentation and studying stars in the late stage of evolution.
Dr. Dick Joyce has worked on a wide variety of instruments during his career at NOAO and also has a research interest in late stars.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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