Stellar Surfaces Through the Looking Glass - Understanding Stellar Convection

Explore stellar convection patterns and their observational challenges in this 20-minute astronomy lecture from ESO Chile researcher Claudia Paladini. Discover how convection influences crucial astrophysical processes like energy transport, pulsation, dynamos, and stellar winds. Learn about solar convection cells as a baseline, with millions of 2000km-sized structures, and compare these to evolved stars' predicted massive convective cells. Examine direct observations of low-mass Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars like pi1 Gruis that confirm theoretical predictions, while considering recent challenges to models regarding Red Supergiants. Delve into high angular resolution imaging techniques used to resolve stellar surfaces and evaluate whether observed patterns truly represent convection phenomena.