Ohio to Maryland

I had a great visit with several astronomers at the Ohio State University in Columbus yesterday. I debated my observing falling planets idea. Perhaps the energy from tidal migration would only heat up the bulk volume of the star, and in that case, the energy from the tidal migration of even the largest planets would not noticably brighten the star. The total energy of the star is too great. But I still maintain that it is still important to consider whether a signficant part of the energy is deposited in shallow layers. It would be ironic if true, but I wonder if having higher Q values could mean that more of the tidal dissipation would occur in a more shallow layer and thus more of the energy could come out as a luminosity increase.

But perhaps I should focus on after the planet starts to be destroyed. Whether destroyed by Roche lobe overflow or by the planet entering the star's photosphere, that energy will come from at or above the star's surface.

I had a good drive from from Columbus to Baltimore. The leaves have just started changing in Eastern Ohio and Western Maryland, as well as the the nearby areas of West Virginia and Pennsylvania). It was a very pretty drive today. The leaves have only barely started changing in eastern MD near DC and Baltimore.

I look forward to talking with astronomers at Johns Hopkins tomorrow. I will talk with one astronomer working with Pan-STARRS, which is interesting to me for how it will survey stars and so could learn about exoplanets.