Alexander Stephan from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA will be the featured speaker at an upcoming Department of Physics and Astronomy colloquium. His talk is titled "Fates of Exoplanets in Aging Binary Systems."

Exoplanets have been observed around a variety of host stars, at all stages of stellar evolution, including main-sequence, sub-giant and red giant branch stages. Additionally, white dwarf pollution signatures may indicate the presence of planetary systems in a large fraction of white dwarf systems. Moreover, since the majority of stars are in binary configurations, stellar evolution for these systems can have large implications on the planetary dynamics. Stephan will show that the post-main sequence evolution of these systems leads to a variety of interesting phenomena, such as the formation of Hot Jupiters around evolved stars, the consumption of planets by stars, and the pollution of white dwarfs with heavy elements.

There will be refreshments starting at 3:30 p.m.