Title: The transient mid-infrared sky unveiled with WISE: Revealing the enshrouded births, deaths and afterlives of stars

Speaker: Dr. Kishalay De, MIT

Abstract: The growth of mass in stars and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) underpins every area of astrophysics. It is now becoming increasingly clear that short-lived transient outbursts caused by eruptive mass transfer episodes likely dominate their growth and evolution. Yet, direct observations remain severely limited either due to their intrinsically red emission, or absorption due to intervening dust and gas which make these phenomena invisible in optical/X-ray time domain surveys. In this talk, I will present the WISE transient pipeline -- a novel effort aimed at a systematic all-sky census of the dynamic mid-infrared sky using more than a decade of data from the NEOWISE space mission. Utilizing the highest spatial resolution images together with state-of-the art image subtraction algorithms, we have created a statistically complete sample of more than five million infrared transients in NEOWISE data. Embarking on a large ground-based follow-up program, I will present results from multi-wavelength characterization of the brightest mid-infrared transients, revealing, i) a new class of dust obscured stellar mergers in low mass stars, ii) new insights into the fiery fates of close planetary systems, iii) missed tidal disruption events by SMBHs in nearby galaxies.