A story of Unintended Discovery
In science, you sometimes find yourself making bold discoveries based on plotting the data just-so.
When I was an undergrad, I plotted the rate of RR Lyrae period evolution against metallicity and found a correlation that helped me understand how stars can evolve. It didn’t revolutionize anything, but I did make a discovery simply because I — being the undergrad I was — decided to plot all possible combinations of variables.
This is how science often happens; variables get plotted, unexpected trend appear, and then folks go looking for the cause of the observed trend. (The amount of excel involved in science is honestly quit surprising.)
While my career has largely wondered away from the variable stars, I still follow along with interest when cool papers and press releases come out.
A few years ago at an AAS meeting, I heard Larry Molnar present his bold prediction that the binary system KIC 9832227 is going to merge and experience a nova in 2022. The data looked solid, and I have to admit to being really hopeful that everything was correct, and a fairly local stellar explosion was in all our futures to enjoy. I was, put simply #TeamStarGoBoom
Unbeknownst to me, Molnar’s work was being followed by documentarian Sam Smaartt.
That film is now out and is called Luminous.
This morning I had the privilege of getting to watch this film. Coming in at…
