Dr. Shazrene Mohamed, South African Astronomical Observatory and Department of Astronomy, UCT, will present the Science Faculty Special Research Seminar with a talk entitled, "The stellar finale: Modelling the interactions of dying stars in 3D". 

Abstract

In their final stages of evolution, stars lose copious amounts of mass and momentum via powerful, dense stellar winds. These outflows, enriched in dust and heavy elements forged in the cores of stars, not only provide the raw material for planetary systems, but also play a central role in the chemical evolution of galaxies. In double star systems, known as binary stars, the winds impinge upon a close companion and a wide range of phenomena can result, from the ejection of jets and spirals to violent nova and supernova explosions. In this talk, I will discuss our 3D supercomputer simulations of these complex stellar outflows and explosions, and what they tell us about the impact dying stars have on their circumstellar environments. 

Biography
Dr. Shazrene Mohamed is a computational stellar astrophysicist with a joint position at the University of Cape Town and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). She completed her undergraduate studies in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Mathematics at Harvard University, USA and obtained her PhD in Astrophysics from Oxford University, UK. After two years as an Argelander Fellow in Bonn, Germany, she moved to Cape Town where she is currently an NRF Research Career Advancement (RCA) fellow. She is a Rhodes Scholar, a NRF P-rated researcher and recipient of the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) Silver Jubilee Medal.