Astronomy Talk & Trivia w/Seattle Astronomical Society

Event Schedule

Doors Open: 6:30 PM (Recommended to reach 15mins early because of parking restrictions)
New Member Orientation: 6:30–6:50 PM
Trivia: 6:50–7:00 PM
Break: 5 minutes
Speaker Presentation: ~7:05 PM (includes Q&A)
Gather & Mingle: ~30 minutes following the talk

RSVP at https://www.seattleastro.org/events-1/membership-meetup-2026-04-15-18-30

Talk Title: A Star Gone Wild - Evidence of a Planetary Collision

Location: Theodore Jacobsen Observatory

Overview: Join us for an evening of connection, club updates, and a fascinating presentation by Anastasios Tzanidakis, Astronomy Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington.

While analyzing archival telescope data, Andy discovered a seemingly ordinary star — Gaia20ehk — behaving in a very unexpected way. Located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Puppis, this Sun-like star should have emitted steady, predictable light. Instead, it began to flicker dramatically, hinting at a rare and energetic event — possibly the aftermath of a planetary collision.

In this talk, Andy will share the story behind this discovery, what it reveals about dynamic processes in planetary systems, and how modern sky surveys are uncovering these rare cosmic events.

Andy’s research combines observational astronomy and advanced data analysis techniques to identify unusual stellar behavior in large-scale surveys. He has contributed to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and previously served as Director of the University of Washington Planetarium, leading public outreach and astronomy programming.