Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter Stellar

Thursday, 24 September 2020, 16:41   (virtual room M)

Treasures from the Zwicky Transient Facility Galactic Plane observations

Thomas Kupfer
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics / Texas Tech University

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) started science operation in March 2018. 40% of ZTF observing time is dedicated to two public surveys: one covering the entire Northern sky every three nights in g and r passbands and one visiting the Galactic Plane every night in g and r. In addition to the public Galactic Plane survey, ZTF has conducted a dedicated high-cadence survey of selected Galactic Plane fields to study the ultra-short variable sky. So far we have covered about 4900 sqd. In this talk, I will present an overview of the ZTF Galactic Plane observations and present some science highlights from the first year, including the discovery of a new class of compact pulsating stars as well as the first members of a new class accreting helium star binaries in an ultracompact orbit.