Tuesday, December 05, 2023
03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
SED Winter Open House
Join us for a Jingle & Mingle celebration!
Read more about this event Tuesday, December 05, 2023
03:45 PM - 05:00 PM
ASD Colloquium (Hybrid)
Worlds & Suns in Context: The Role of Age and Environment
Melinda Soares-Furtado (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
In this talk, I discuss the interactions between stellar hosts and planetary companions, including the ejection and ingestion of stellar companions. Drawing insights from stellar evolutionary models and observational survey data (photometric and spectroscopic), I present my team's latest discoveries as we seek to identify unambiguous ingestion-derived chemical tracers. Such tracers make it possible to identify engulfment events long after the original event has transpired and offer a critical opportunity to probe bulk planetary composition. Looking forward, infrared space-based missions like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon make it possible to investigate young, free-floating planets for the presence of satellites. These data would help to further constrain the formation pathways and dynamical histories of these starless worlds.
Read more about this event Melinda Soares-Furtado (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
In this talk, I discuss the interactions between stellar hosts and planetary companions, including the ejection and ingestion of stellar companions. Drawing insights from stellar evolutionary models and observational survey data (photometric and spectroscopic), I present my team's latest discoveries as we seek to identify unambiguous ingestion-derived chemical tracers. Such tracers make it possible to identify engulfment events long after the original event has transpired and offer a critical opportunity to probe bulk planetary composition. Looking forward, infrared space-based missions like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon make it possible to investigate young, free-floating planets for the presence of satellites. These data would help to further constrain the formation pathways and dynamical histories of these starless worlds.
Wednesday, December 06, 2023
10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
ASD Colloquium (Hybrid)
GammaTPC: a novel next generation Compton telescope
Thomas Shutt (KIPAC, Stanford University)
I will talk about GammaTPC, a new instrument concept for measuring astrophysical gamma rays in the MeV energy range. This is a largely unexplored energy range due in large part to the difficulty of measuring such photons. GammaTPC uses liquid argon time projection chamber (TPC) technology which builds on developments for dark matter and neutrinos, and holds the promise of an instrument that is both very large and highly sensitive. Core to GammaTPC is GAMPix, a new charge readout scheme that achieves fine-grained, low noise readout at very low power. I will discuss his and other challenges to fielding a liquid noble TPC in low Earth orbit, as well as the status of GammaTPC development.
Read more about this event Thomas Shutt (KIPAC, Stanford University)
I will talk about GammaTPC, a new instrument concept for measuring astrophysical gamma rays in the MeV energy range. This is a largely unexplored energy range due in large part to the difficulty of measuring such photons. GammaTPC uses liquid argon time projection chamber (TPC) technology which builds on developments for dark matter and neutrinos, and holds the promise of an instrument that is both very large and highly sensitive. Core to GammaTPC is GAMPix, a new charge readout scheme that achieves fine-grained, low noise readout at very low power. I will discuss his and other challenges to fielding a liquid noble TPC in low Earth orbit, as well as the status of GammaTPC development.
Wednesday, December 06, 2023
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Technosignature Seminar
The Oxygen Bottleneck and Thoughts On The Evolution of Technology
Prof. Adam Frank (Univ. of Rochester)
Read more about this event Prof. Adam Frank (Univ. of Rochester)
Wednesday, December 06, 2023
03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Scientific Colloquium
How Minds Change
David McRaney
Read more about this event David McRaney
Thursday, December 07, 2023
03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
AGN Seminar (Hybrid)
CEERS Spectroscopic Confirmation of AGN in the Heart of Reionization
Dr. Rebecca Larson (Post-doc, Rochester Institute of Technology)
The history of galaxies and the growth of their black holes [BHs] in the early Universe remains substantially unknown, in large part, as a result of the epoch in which they existed. Prior to the launch of JWST, the high-redshift field was restricted due to limited ground- and space-based instrumentation probing near-infrared [NIR] wavelengths and beyond. During this time, much of what we learned spectroscopically about these galaxies came from a handful of bright UV metal emission lines or far-infrared [FIR] emission (generally with only 1-2 lines detected in individual galaxies), with the missing gaps of knowledge filled by simulations and theoretical models. Most notably, the emitted light was typically attributed to either the host galaxy or the active galactic nucleus [AGN] at the center, leading to a bifurcation of the field and subsequent scientific studies.Using the advanced spectroscopic NIR capabilities of JWST, we have been able to find not only increasingly distant galaxies but also to differentiate between AGN and star-formation emission within them. Finally gaining access to a time in cosmic history where both the host galaxies and their AGN are growing rapidly, provides a unique opportunity and challenge to observe and disentangle emissions from both independently, as often neither completely outshines the other. In this talk, I will highlight our work from the Cosmic Evolution and Early Release Science [CEERS] survey, and report on the spectroscopic confirmation of an accreting supermassive black hole at z~8.7 (Larson et al. 2023) in the brightest known galaxy at this epoch prior to JWST. This discovery provides an exciting new piece to the puzzle of BH growth and evolution in this epoch, with some interesting implications for the necessary seed mass and accretion rate to achieve the observed BH size in such a short time. I will also discuss the power of JWST for studying the physical properties of these galaxies, and how the methods used for categorizing sources by either the host galaxy or the AGN may need to be modified from those previously used at later cosmic times.
Read more about this event Dr. Rebecca Larson (Post-doc, Rochester Institute of Technology)
The history of galaxies and the growth of their black holes [BHs] in the early Universe remains substantially unknown, in large part, as a result of the epoch in which they existed. Prior to the launch of JWST, the high-redshift field was restricted due to limited ground- and space-based instrumentation probing near-infrared [NIR] wavelengths and beyond. During this time, much of what we learned spectroscopically about these galaxies came from a handful of bright UV metal emission lines or far-infrared [FIR] emission (generally with only 1-2 lines detected in individual galaxies), with the missing gaps of knowledge filled by simulations and theoretical models. Most notably, the emitted light was typically attributed to either the host galaxy or the active galactic nucleus [AGN] at the center, leading to a bifurcation of the field and subsequent scientific studies.Using the advanced spectroscopic NIR capabilities of JWST, we have been able to find not only increasingly distant galaxies but also to differentiate between AGN and star-formation emission within them. Finally gaining access to a time in cosmic history where both the host galaxies and their AGN are growing rapidly, provides a unique opportunity and challenge to observe and disentangle emissions from both independently, as often neither completely outshines the other. In this talk, I will highlight our work from the Cosmic Evolution and Early Release Science [CEERS] survey, and report on the spectroscopic confirmation of an accreting supermassive black hole at z~8.7 (Larson et al. 2023) in the brightest known galaxy at this epoch prior to JWST. This discovery provides an exciting new piece to the puzzle of BH growth and evolution in this epoch, with some interesting implications for the necessary seed mass and accretion rate to achieve the observed BH size in such a short time. I will also discuss the power of JWST for studying the physical properties of these galaxies, and how the methods used for categorizing sources by either the host galaxy or the AGN may need to be modified from those previously used at later cosmic times.

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Mission Posters
Please check out these awesome mission posters for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the James Webb Space Telescope missions.Featured Video
Celebrating 30 years in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed astonishing secrets about our universe. Yet, while its most famous pictures may reveal galaxies and nebulas across the cosmos, it’s also unlocked secrets here in our own solar system.