Past Colloquia
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…
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…
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…
The Advanced LIGO detectors in the era of multi-messenger astronomy
Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto
Jess McIver
September 25, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00pm
Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo are currently in the middle of their third observing run; the first to feature open public event alerts. The LIGO-Virgo collaboration has issued 28 un-retracted candidate event alerts as of September 11th, 2019, potentially adding dozens more known compact object…
The Dynamics of the Local Group in the Era of Precision Astrometry
Cody Hall, AB 107, University of Toronto
Gurtina Besla
September 18, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our understanding of the dynamics of our Local Group of galaxies has changed dramatically over the past few years owing to significant advancements in astrometry and our theoretical understanding of galaxy structure. New surveys now enable us to map the 3D structure of our Milky…
NIRCam on the James Webb Space Telescope:Targets Near and Far
Cody Hall, AB 107
Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona
April 24, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The Near Infrared Camera for JWST plays multiple roles for the mission as it is both the wavefront sensor used to align the telescope, and a science camera with a broad range of capabilities. The NIRCam Instrument Team observing program includes targets ranging from solar…
How to Reionize the Universe – Clues from the Low-Redshift “Green Pea” Galaxies
Cody Hall, AB 107
Anne Jaskot (University of Massachusetts)
April 17, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The reionization of the intergalactic medium at z>6 is one of the major transformations in the universe’s history, and yet, we know little about how it occurred. The most likely explanation is that Lyman continuum (LyC) radiation escaped into the intergalactic medium from early star-forming…
The Origin and Demographics of Long-Period Giant Planets
Cody Hall, AB 107
Brendan Bowler (University of Texas at Austin)
April 10, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Observations of exoplanets over the past quarter century have shown that the demographics and architectures of planetary systems exhibit a remarkable diversity spanning over five orders of magnitude in mass, separation, and age. Direct imaging has opened up much of this landscape, enabling a powerful…
A look into the birth cradles of planets with ALMA: signatures of planet formation in protoplanetary disks
Cody Hall, AB 107
Nienke van der Marel, Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics in Victoria, BC
April 03, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In the last two decades thousands of exoplanets have been discovered, showing that planets are ubiquitous throughout the Milky Way. However, the formation of planets itself remains a mystery. Protoplanetary disks of gas and dust around young stars are the birth cradles of planets, and…
The Past, Present, and Future of 21cm Cosmology
Cody Hall, AB 107
Adrian C. Liu (McGill University)
March 27, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Despite tremendous recent progress, gaps remain in our knowledge of our cosmic history. For example, we have yet to make direct observations of Cosmic Dawn or the subsequent Epoch of Reionization. Together, these represent the important period when the first stars and galaxies were formed,…