ASD Colloquia are Tuesdays at 3:45 pm (Meet the Speaker at 3:30 pm)
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January | ||||||
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Jan 27 |
Mark Devlin (University of Pennsylvania) - Where Did Half the Starlight in the Universe Go? |
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February | ||||||
Feb 2 |
C. Robert O'Dell (Vanderbilt University) Host: Gull | |||||
Feb 10 | ||||||
Feb 17 | PRESIDENT'S DAY BREAK | |||||
Feb 24 |
Zoltan Haiman (Columbia) Building 2 Room 8 | |||||
March | ||||||
Mar 3 |
Wes Traub (JPL) - Recent Results Relevant to Future Exoplanet Missions Host: Kuchner | |||||
Mar 10 | ||||||
Mar 17 |
Jack Burns (University of Colorado) - Astrophysics From The Moon Host: Merkowitz | |||||
Mar 24 | Eugene Chiang (Berkeley) | |||||
Mar 31 | ||||||
April | ||||||
Apr 7 | ||||||
Apr 14 | Tiziana Di Matteo (Carnegie Mellon University) | |||||
Apr 21 | ||||||
Apr 28 | ||||||
May | ||||||
May 5 | Elena Aprile (Columbia University) | |||||
May 12 | Victoria Kaspi (McGill University) | |||||
May 19 | Peter Michelson (Stanford) | |||||
May 26 |
Where Did Half the Starlight in the Universe Go?Mark DevlinUniversity of Pennsylvania
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Abstract
We believe that approximately half of all the light from stars is absorbed and reprocessed by dust. The resulting emission is grey body with a temperature near 30 Kelvin. The COBE satellite made the first measurements of the resulting Far Infrared Background (FIRB), but since that time, we have been unable to resolve the background into individual galaxies. The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) was designed to address this and a host of other issues. Its three bands at 250, 350, and 500 microns span the peak in emission for galaxies at z=1. I will discuss the BLAST experiment and present results from our measurements of resolved and unresolved galaxies.
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Astrophysics From The MoonJack BurnsUniversity of Colorado
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
AbstractNASA's National Space Exploration Policy calls for a return to the Moon by 2020. Unlike Apollo, the new lunar exploration initiative is to include a robust program of science of, to, and from the Moon. Astrophysics from the Moon has particular potential. The Moon is a unique platform for fundamental astrophysical measurements of gravitation, the Sun, and the Universe. Lunar laser ranging of the Earth-Moon distance provides extremely high precision constraints on General Relativity (GR) and alternative models of gravity. Current alternate theories for gravity, including those that explain dark matter and dark energy, predict deviations from GR at a level that is potentially within the grasp of the next generation of lunar laser retroreflectors. Lacking a permanent ionosphere and, on the lunar farside, shielded from terrestrial radio emissions, a low frequency (<100 MHz) radio telescope on the Moon will be an unparalleled heliospheric and astrophysical observatory. Crucial stages in particle acceleration near the Sun can be imaged and tracked. The evolution of the Universe during and before the formation of the first stars (termed the "Dark Ages") can be traced for the first time, yielding high precision cosmology constraints. I will describe both the science and the technology of these new astrophysical observatories for the lunar surface.
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