Dr Emma Beasor
Astrophysics Research Institute
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Email: E.R.Beasor@ljmu.ac.uk
ORCID
I am currently a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at the Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University.
My primary research focuses on understanding the lives and deaths of the most massive stars in the Universe. To explore this, I combine observations from optical and infrared telescopes—such as JWST, Magellan, and HST—with powerful theoretical models such as the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) stellar evolution code. Ultimately, my work aims to shed light on the connection between progenitor stars, their supernovae explosions, and the compact remnants they leave behind.
Some of the key questions I’m exploring include:
- To what extent does mass-loss influence the evolution of massive stars?
- Which stars end their lives as explosive supernovae, and what do these explosions look like?
- Which stars fail to explode entirely?
- What kind of compact remnant do massive stars leave behind as a function of initial mass?
Degrees
2019, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, PhD
2015, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, MPhys
Academic appointments
Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, Liverpool John Moores University, 2025 - present
Bart J. Bok Fellow, University of Arizona, 2022 - 2024
NASA Hubble Fellow, NSF's NOIRLab, 2019 - 2022
Journal article
Beasor ER, Smith N, Jencson JE. 2025. The Red Supergiant Progenitor Luminosity Problem Astrophysical Journal, 979 DOI Publisher Url
Beasor ER, Hosseinzadeh G, Smith N, Davies B, Jencson JE, Pearson J, Sand DJ. 2024. JWST Reveals a Luminous Infrared Source at the Position of the Failed Supernova Candidate N6946-BH1 Astrophysical Journal, 964 DOI Publisher Url
Jencson JE, Pearson J, Beasor ER, Lau RM, Andrews JE, Bostroem KA, Dong Y, Engesser M, Gomez S, Guolo M, Hoang E, Hosseinzadeh G, Jha SW, Karambelkar V, Kasliwal MM, Lundquist M, Meza Retamal NE, Rest A, Sand DJ, Shahbandeh M, Shrestha M, Smith N, Strader J, Valenti S, Wang Q, Zenati Y. 2023. A Luminous Red Supergiant and Dusty Long-period Variable Progenitor for SN 2023ixf Astrophysical Journal Letters, 952 DOI Publisher Url
Beasor ER, Smith N, Andrews JE. 2023. Don’t Believe the Hype(r): The Yellow Supergiants of Westerlund 1 Astrophysical Journal, 952 DOI Publisher Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Smith N, van Loon JT, Gehrz RD, Figer DF. 2023. A new mass-loss rate prescription for red supergiants (vol 492, pg 5994, 2020) MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, 524 :2460-2462 DOI Publisher Url
Beasor ER, Smith N. 2022. The Extreme Scarcity of Dust-enshrouded Red Supergiants: Consequences for Producing Stripped Stars via Winds Astrophysical Journal, 933 DOI Publisher Url
Jencson JE, Sand DJ, Andrews JE, Smith N, Pearson J, Strader J, Valenti S, Beasor ER, Rothberg B. 2022. An Exceptional Dimming Event for a Massive, Cool Supergiant in M51 Astrophysical Journal, 930 DOI Publisher Url
McDonald SLE, Davies B, Beasor ER. 2022. Red Supergiants in M31: The Humphreys-Davidson limit at high metallicity Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 18 :422-428 DOI Publisher Url
McDonald SLE, Davies B, Beasor ER. 2021. Red supergiants in M31: the Humphreys-Davidson limit at high metallicity Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 510 :3132-3144 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Smith N. 2021. The Impact of Realistic Red Supergiant Mass Loss on Stellar Evolution Astrophysical Journal, 922 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Smith N, Gehrz RD, Figer DF. 2021. The Age of Westerland 1 Revisited Astrophysical Journal, 912 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Davies B, Beasor ER. 2020. 'On the red supergiant problem': a rebuttal, and a consensus on the upper mass cut-off for II-P progenitors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, 496 :L142-L146 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Smith N, van Loon JT, Gehrz RD, Figer DF. 2020. A new mass-loss rate prescription for red supergiants Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 492 :5994-6006 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Davies B, Beasor ER. 2020. The 'red supergiant problem': the upper luminosity boundary of Type II supernova progenitors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 493 :468-476 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Eldridge JJ, Beasor ER, Britavskiy N. 2020. On ageing star clusters using red supergiants independent of the fraction of interacting binary stars Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 495 :L102-L107 DOI Publisher Url
Davies B, Beasor ER. 2019. The distances to star-clusters hosting Red Supergiants: $χ$ Per, NGC 7419, and Westerlund 1 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, 486 :10-14 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Smith N, Bastian N. 2019. Discrepancies in the ages of young star clusters; evidence for mergers? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 486 :266-273 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Cabrera-Ziri I, Hurst G. 2018. A critical re-evaluation of the Thorne-Zytkow object candidate HV 2112 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 479 :3101-3105 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Davies B, Crowther PA, Beasor ER. 2018. The luminosities of cool supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds, and the Humphreys-Davidson limit revisited Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 478 :3138-3148 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B. 2017. The evolution of Red Supergiant mass-loss rates Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Davies B, Beasor ER. 2017. The Initial Masses of the Red Supergiant Progenitors to Type-II Supernovae Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Davies B, Kudritzki R-P, Lardo C, Bergemann M, Beasor ER, Plez B, Evans C, Bastian N, Patrick L. 2017. Red Supergiants as Cosmic Abundance Probes: massive star clusters in M83, and the mass-metallicity relation of nearby galaxies Astrophysical Journal, 847 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B. 2017. The evolution of red supergiants to supernovae IAU Symposia Proceedings, 329 :59-63 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Beasor ER, Davies B. 2016. The evolution of Red Supergiants to supernova in NGC 2100 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 463 :1269-1283 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
preprint
Jencson JE, Pearson J, Beasor ER, Lau RM, Andrews JE, Bostroem KA, Dong Y, Engesser M, Gomez S, Guolo M, Hoang E, Hosseinzadeh G, Jha SW, Karambelkar V, Kasliwal MM, Lundquist M, Retamal NEM, Rest A, Sand DJ, Shahbandeh M, Shrestha M, Smith N, Strader J, Valenti S, Wang Q, Zenati Y. 2023. A Luminous Red Supergiant and Dusty Long-period Variable Progenitor for SN 2023ixf DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Beasor ER, Davies B, Smith N. 2021. The impact of realistic red supergiant mass-loss on stellar evolution DOI Author Url Publisher Url