February’s Science Topic – Binary Stars and Artificial Intelligence
14 Feb 2026 18:00 – 20:00
Speakers: Rania Alafogianni (She/Her), Bart Devogel (He/Any), Akhila Thamaravelil Abhimanue Achary (She/Her) from KU Leuven
Binary stars are famously hard to distinguish from single stars using normal telescopes. One of the most conventional methods is to manually look at how their light behaves and which colors it emits. While manual methods are extremely reliable, detecting binaries this way is very time consuming. Using machine learning, we have built a digital “brain” that looks at this light behavior and tries to classify star systems. We will show how this system works and how we applied it to realistic systems to gain insights on stellar bodies.
Akhila, Bart and Rania are three astronomy masters/graduate students from KU Leuven. Rania has had a long held interest in binary stars, Bart likes applying modern computational methods to astronomical issues, and Akhila has strong background theoretical physics and is interested in Astrobiology and Exoplanets
After the talk, stick around for a planetarium show and, if the weather holds, a Star Party.
(PSST…we are still looking for members to join our Speakers Bureau! Whether you want to give a scheduled talk, or offer to be a stand-in when our scheduled speaker needs to cancel, we need you!)
