Transiting Disintegrating Planetary Debris around WD 1145+017

More than a decade after astronomers realized that disrupted planetary material likely pollutes the surfaces of many white dwarf stars, the discovery of transiting debris orbiting the white dwarf WD 1145+017 has opened the door to new explorations of this process. We describe the observational evidence for transiting planetary material and the current theoretical understanding (and in some cases lack thereof) of the phenomenon.Comment: Invited review chapter. Accepted March 23, 2017 and published October 7, 2017 in the Handbook of Exoplanets. 15 pages, 10 figure

The art of discovery

This photograph originally appeared in the 2018 Research student photography and image competition held to celebrate National Science Week (11-19 August 2018). Blurb: A small, simple, hand-made telescope absorbing the multicoloured light of the Milky Way contrasts with the immensity and complexity of the Universe. Siting at quiet desks, new and creative ideas are investigated by astronomers everyday to fully unravel the mysteries that surround us