From CASS

Carl Melis

CASS Postdoctoral Fellow
NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow

Email: cmelis@ucsd.edu

Office: SERF 339

Phone: (858) 534-6627

Related Websites

ADS
SPIRES
http://cass.ucsd.edu/~cmelis

Research Interests

My research focuses on the birth, life, death, and rebirth of planetary systems, with an emphasis on terrestrial (Earth-like) planets. I use radio telescopes like as the EVLA to study the dusty material that orbits young stars as planets form and undergo catastrophic collisions. I study the death of rocky objects through observations of white dwarf stars, the end state of our Sun's evolution, from which we learn how planetary systems disintegrate and their elemental composition. I also study the rebirth of planetary systems around a peculiar class of first-ascent giant stars I've dubbed "Phoenix Giants", as they resemble in many ways youthful, planet forming star systems.