Massive stars from young to old - an investigation in the infrared
Date:
Massive stars (>8Mdot) are important driving factors within our universe. Massive stars are the sole origin of the heavy elements within the Universe and their winds, outflows and supernovae enrich the interstellar medium and inhibit and trigger further stellar formation. On galactic scales, massive stars allow the inference of the mass of spatially unresolved galaxies and their SNe ejecta winds contribute to the galactic super-wind. Additionally, when a massive binary star system ends its life the gravitational wave events that occur can be felt across galaxies. In my talk I will discuss how I use infrared astronomy, and primarily interferometry, to study stars from young to old, describing how this regime can be used to study the dusty surrounding of forming massive stars to the evolved stellar multiple systems which are gravitational wave progenitors.