Past Colloquia
Galaxies and supermassive black holes at Cosmic Dawn with JWST
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. Rachel Somerville, Rutgers University
October 21, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope nearly five years ago, its observations of the early Universe have uncovered multiple new puzzles around how the earliest galaxies and black holes formed and evolved. Apparently, galaxies formed surprisingly early and vigorously, and have ISM…
CANCELLED
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. Jennifer Bergner
October 14, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Planets are born from the gas, dust, and ice present within the disks around young stars. The icy component of the parent disk is profoundly important to the outcomes of planet formation, but prior to JWST there were virtually no observational constraints on ices in…
How to Make an Astronomer in the Age of AI
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. Michael Reid, University of Toronto
October 07, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: Generative AI has caused chaos in higher education, upending old assessment strategies and changing our relationship with our students in uncomfortable ways. As we consider how to respond, it’s an opportunity to revisit some of our deeply held values as educators. We have to…
Probing Dark Matter with X-ray Telescopes and the International Axion Observatory (IAXO)
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. Kerstin M. Perez
September 30, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Axions are among the best motivated candidates for dark matter. Their existence would subtly alter the processes within stellar interiors, imprinting characteristic signals in astrophysical observations. Observations with existing X-ray telescopes have already begun to exploit this connection, placing leading constraints on axion dark matter…
The Beautiful Confusion. The Earliest Galaxies after JWST
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. Andrea Ferrara
September 23, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
One of the major surprises provided by the first months of early Universe observations by JWST has been the detection of a stunning overabundance of luminous, and likely massive, galaxies at redshift z>10. As the first spectroscopic confirmations are accumulating, it is crucial and timely to…
The Afterlife of Gas Giants: Tidal Disruption and Subsequent Fate of Stripped Cores on Close-in Orbits
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. Heather Knutson
September 16, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
For decades, models have predicted that gas giant planets that come too close to their host stars will be destroyed, with most of their mass accreted onto the host star. However, recent work modeling Roche lobe overflow from close-in gas giants now indicates that angular momentum exchange…
The Seasons of Helium
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
Prof. S. R. Kulkarni
September 09, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
SPHEREx, a recently launched astronomy mission, detected a bright 1.083 micron emission feature in the commissioning data. The PI group attributed this feature to the He I 1.0833 micron triplet line. In this seminar I review the physics and aeronomy of this well-known line of…
“Asteroseismology: from slow to fast rotators and from individual stars to populations”
AB107
Prof. Conny Aerts, KU Leuven, Belgium
May 20, 2026
11:00am - 12:00pm
Abstract: After a brief general introduction into the basic principles of asteroseismology, we consider the various restoring forces and the approximations adopted in the theory of stellar oscillations. We discuss the corresponding waves and frequency regimes encountered in modern space photometric light curves of various…
“Unravelling the Symphonies of the Stars with Asteroseismology”
Location: Isabel Bader Theatre, University of Toronto, 93 Charles St. W., Toronto, ON
Prof. Conny Aerts, KU Leuven, Belgium
May 19, 2026
7:00 - 8:30pm
Speaker: Professor Conny Aerts, KU Leuven, Belgium As Part of the Helen Sawyer Hogg Distinguished Visitorship Public Lecture Series Abstract: The life of the stars is determined by the physical processes happening deep inside these hot gaseous balls of fire. In this Helen Sawyer…
From Accretion to Architecture: Giant Planets Across Space and Time
Cody Hall, 50 St. George Street
April 29, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Planets exhibit extraordinary diversity in physical properties and orbital architectures, spanning more than four orders of magnitude in mass, separation, and age. Interpreting this landscape is challenging as observational biases and orbital migration obscure the pathways of planet formation and evolution across both space and…