A Talk on Stellar Structure by Yash Mehta

It was the 23rd day of the month of July, 2022 when the founder of the Astrae Club stepped on the stage to deliver a talk on stellar structure. As the name suggests, the talk was centered around the physical structure of stars in general. Yash made some very obvious assumptions, and some really wild ones as well, and using very elementary methods of physics, developed a model of a star, using which he derived simple equations for various physical qualities like the temperature, mass, density, gravitational acceleration, pressure, luminosity, etc., all as functions of the distance from the center of the star. Throughout his talk, he constantly bombarded the audience with numbers related to the physical parameters of the Sun, pointing out that even a very very elementary model can tell you so much about a star and how significant the numbers were.

In a sense, the talk gave a glimpse of how one goes about in studying Astrophysics, how the laws of physics discovered on our home planet apply invariably to the stars as well, but with a little caution!

The talk was in hybrid mode (online as well as offline). Anyone affiliated with the Indian Institute of Science can use the following link to watch the video recording of the online meeting: Astrae Talk on Stellar Structure by Yash Mehta

Here's a snapshot from the talk showing the founder of 'the stage' on the stage:

The founder of 'the stage' on the stage. (Image: Kenil Ajudiya)