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Past Colloquia

The Formation of Binary Stars and Planets

Cody Hall, AB 107

Maxwell Moe, University of Arizona

February 26, 2020
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

The majority of solar-type stars are born in binaries, and therefore star and planet formation must be examined in the context of stellar multiples. I will first highlight the hurdles in standard migration models of close binaries and hot Jupiters.  Although the majority of close…

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Students Doing Astronomy Like Astronomers: Teaching Astronomy Through Observation and Modelling

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Pierre Chastenay, UQAM

January 15, 2020
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

How do young people learn science? What to do about their naïve conceptions? How can we better support them in learning scientific concepts? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this colloquium, which will focus more specifically on teaching basic astronomical…

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Stellar systems at low radio frequencies: The discovery of radio exoplanets

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Joe Callingham, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy

December 18, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

For more than thirty years, radio astronomers have searched for auroral emission from exoplanets. With LOFAR we have recently detected strong, highly circularly polarised low-frequency (144 MHz) radio emission associated with a M-dwarf – the expected signpost of such radiation. The star itself is quiescent,…

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The Milky Way Laboratory

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Cara Battersby, University of Connecticut

December 11, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Our own Milky Way Galaxy is a powerful and relatively nearby laboratory in which to study the physical processes that occur throughout the Universe. From the organization of gas on galactic scales to the life cycle of gas and stars under varied environmental conditions, studies…

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Numerical experiments on star formation: mass functions and star-forming core properties

Cody Hall, AB 107

Lee Hartmann, University of Michigan

November 13, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

I present results from a set of numerical simulations of star formation with a restricted set of physics designed to isolate and understand basic processes.  Cloud simulations of star (sink) formation which develop a large dynamic range in mass beyond fragmentation limits and good number…

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The Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey

Cody Hall, AB 107

Ting Li, Carnegie Observatories, Carnegie Institution for Science Pasadena

October 30, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

In this talk, I will present an ongoing spectroscopic program, the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S5), which maps newly discovered stellar streams with the fiber-fed AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. S5 is the first systematic program pursuing a complete census of known streams in the Southern Hemisphere, providing a uniquely powerful sample for understanding the building…

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Illuminating Diffuse Galaxies with New Generation Imaging Surveys

Cody Hall, AB 107

Johnny Greco, Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (Ohio State University)

October 23, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

We are entering a new era for wide and deep optical surveys, which promises to extend our census of the galaxy population to lower surface brightnesses than has ever been possible over large areas of the sky. These surveys will uncover low surface brightness (LSB)…

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Extragalactic Star Clusters and the Assembly Histories of Galaxies

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Jean Brodie. UC Santa Cruz

October 16, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

I will report on the latest results from the SLUGGS imaging and spectroscopic survey of early type galaxies whose overarching goal is to unravel the formation histories of galaxies using the numbers, spatial distributions, stellar populations and kinematics of globular clusters to infer fundamental properties…

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From Birth to Chirp – Astrophysics of Massive Stars as Gravitational Wave Progenitors

Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto

Selma E. de Mink, Harvard University / University of Amsterdam

October 09, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

`How did they form?’ is a question many asked when LIGO announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves originating from two surprisingly heavy stellar-mass black holes. With masses of about 30 solar masses each, they outweighed all of the known black holes known from…

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The Inaugural Martin Lecture: The World in 2050 – and beyond

Isabel Bader Theatre, 140 Charles Street W

Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, OM, FRS, FREng, FMedSci, HonFBA

September 30, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

With Keynote Speaker Professor Martin John Rees Our Earth has existed for 45 million centuries but this is the first time one species—ours—has the planet’s future in its hands. Advances in biotechnology, cybertechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence—if pursued and applied wisely—could empower us to boost…

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