Richard A. Wade
Ph.D. in Astronomy, California Inst. of Technology, 1981
Contact Information:
Office: 515 Davey Lab
Mailing Address: 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802
Phone: (814) 863-6039
FAX: (814) 863-2482
email: wade(at)astro.psu.edu
Office Hours: Mon 4:30-5:30, Th 2:30-3:30, or by appointment
Spring 2012 Courses:
Astro 11, Elementary Astronomy Laboratory
..... Section 10, Mon, 2:30-4:25pm, 064 Willard
..... Section 06, Tues, 2:30-4:25pm, 004 Life Sci
Astro 414, Stellar Structure & Evolution, MWF 10:10 - 11:00
The figure on the right compares the brightnesses and spectra of DA white
dwarfs with cool main sequence stars.
Astronomical phenomena during Fall 2011
Research Interests:
- Advanced stages of stellar evolution involving white dwarf stars
and hot subdwarf stars and their interactions in binary systems.
- Observations and models of accretion disks in cataclysmic
variable systems. Click here to see the
evolution of effective temperature for a dwarf nova's accretion disk
(data courtesy John Cannizzo).
Some Specific Projects:
- Binary population synthesis: theory and observations
(collaborators: D. Clausen, R. O'Shaughnessy, R.K. Kopparapu).
- Orbital periods for binaries containing hot subdwarf stars
and main sequence stars: long or short?
- The 23-year light-time orbit of the RR Lyr star, TU Ursae Majoris
(pro-am collaboration); the mass ratio of the TU UMa binary, from
radial velocities (collaborators: C. Bender, K. Todorov, A. Saha, D. Willmarth,
D. Harmer).
- Accurate masses and radii of low-mass dwarfs: addressing the
discrepancy between theory and observation (collaborators: J. Orosz,
W. Welsh).
- Distances to galactic Planetary Nebulae from photometric
parallaxes of resolved companions (analysis of HST images;
collaborators: Robin Ciardullo, Howard Bond, Matt Route)
Interesting Note:
There are at least three Richard Wades with significant
interests in astronomy. "Number 2" is R. A. Wade in England at the
Rutherford Appleton Labs. (When I met him in 1982,
we didn't annihilate.) "Number 3" is Richard Peter Wade,
an independent archaeologist in South Africa, who has been
studying the Great Zimbabwe ruins from an astronomical angle.
Last updated 2012 Jan 8
Web page by Richard Wade (wade(at)astro.psu.edu)
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Penn State University