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Past Colloquia

Why We Need to Understand Stars to Find the Next Earth

Cody Hall, AB 107

Rachel Osten (Space Telescope Science Institute)

April 04, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

With the discovery of the first planet orbiting a normal star more than twenty years ago, and thousands of detected exoplanets since then, astronomy is firmly in the age of the exoplanet. The ultimate goal is to answer the question “Are we alone?”, with evidence…

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Illuminating Gravitational Waves

Cody Hall, AB 107

Mansi Kasliwal (Caltech)

March 28, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

On August 17 2017, for the first time, an electromagnetic counterpart to gravitational waves was detected. Two neutron stars merged and lit up the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma-rays to the radio. The infrared signature vividly demonstrates that neutron star mergers are indeed the long-sought…

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Imaging All the Sky All the Time in Search of Radio Exoplanets

Cody Hall, AB 107

Gregg Hallinan (Caltech)

March 21, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

All the magnetized planets in our solar system, including Earth, produce bright emission at low radio frequencies, predominantly originating in high magnetic latitudes and powered by auroral processes. It has long been speculated that similar radio emission may be detectable from exoplanets orbiting nearby stars,…

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Observations of Circumgalactic, Inflowing Gas with CWI

Cody Hall, AB 107

Christopher Martin (Caltech)

March 14, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

I describe observations with the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager and the newly commissioned Keck Cosmic Web Imager of the Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM). We show ubiquitous Lyman alpha emission near 2<z<3 QSOs, a significant number of systems velocity shear and angular momentum, filamentary and disklike morphology,…

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Detectable Changes in Astronomy

Cody Hall, AB 107

Federica Bianco (New York University)

March 07, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

The way we do science in general, and astronomy in particular, is changing rapidly. I will talk about the future of astronomy on the verge of the LSST survey. As the LSST Science Collaborations Coordinator, I will discuss how the whole science community is preparing…

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Common envelope physics and the transients

Cody Hall, AB 107

Natasha Ivanova (University of Alberta)

February 28, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

Common-envelope events capture the imagination and are visually impressive, energetically noteworthy, and dramatically fate-defining episodes in the lives of close binary systems. During a common envelope event, two stars temporarily orbit within a shared envelope, and the episode ends with an exciting outburst, leaving behind…

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The Universe’s Most Extreme Star-Forming Galaxies in Early, Massive Galaxy Protoclusters

Cody Hall, AB 107

Scott Chapman (Dalhousie University)

February 14, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

The star-forming, sub-millimeter galaxy (SMG) population represent the most intense stellar nurseries in the Universe. Their high star formation rates of 200-2000 Msun/yr (compared to the Milky Way’s 1 Msun/yr) pose a unique challenge for cosmological simulations of how galaxies form and evolve, particularly in…

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Connecting Protoplanetary Disk and Exoplanet Atmospheric Composition

Cody Hall, AB 107

Edwin Bergin (University of Michigan)

February 07, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

In planetary atmospheres equilibrium chemistry will redistribute elements into specific carriers depending on local conditions.  Therefore to draw a link between planet formation and end-state composition, we need to measure absolute abundances and trace the bulk carriers of key elements, particularly carbon and oxygen.  In…

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Outer Halos of Galaxies from Field to Cluster Environment

Cody Hall, AB 107

Rhea-Silvia Remus, Universitaets Sternwarte Muenchen (USM)

January 31, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

The outer halos of galaxies are a fantastic laboratory to study several important physical processes that shape the appearance of galaxies in the universe. While dominated by the dark matter component, the outer halos also harbor small galaxies orbiting around the main galaxy, and often…

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Exoplanet Detectives: Seeking Clues to Explain the Diverse Architectures of Exoplanetary Systems

Cody Hall, AB 107

Heather Knutson (Caltech)

January 24, 2018
14:00 - 15:00

Over the past two decades ongoing surveys have detected thousands of new planetary systems around nearby stars. These systems include apparently single gas giant planets on short period orbits, closely packed systems of up to 5-6 “mini-Neptunes”, and solar-system-like architectures with either one small planet…

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