Past Colloquia
2024 Martin Lecture with Maria Zuber
Venue: Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue
Prof. Maria Zuber
May 06, 2024
6:30 PM
Public Lecture: “A Human Expedition to Mars” How close are we to sending humans to Mars? Human exploration of the red planet has been seriously discussed since the 1940s, but no mission concept has gone beyond the planning stage. Why not? This talk will consider the…
Conversation with Maria Zuber
Venue: McLennan Physical Laboratories (MP102)
Prof. Maria Zuber
May 06, 2024
11:00am
“Science at the Top: President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology” A live, in-person only discussion with Maria Zuber. About Maria T. Zuber Maria Zuber is the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Vice President for Research at MIT. Her research bridges planetary…
Massive-Star Feedback at Low Metallicity
Prof. Sally Oey, University of Michigan
April 10, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: Massive-star feedback at low metallicity may vary dramatically from the classical, thermal energy-driven model at solar metallicity. I show that weak stellar winds and fewer supernovae promote conditions for classical feedback to be dominated by radiation, rather than mechanical power. This could play an important role in…
Constraining Galaxy Formation (and Baryonic Effects on LSS) with Observations of the Thermal and Kinetic SZ Effects.
Cody Hall
Nicholas Battaglia
April 03, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: A new window into the growth and evolution of large-scale structure has opened up with the recent observations of the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effects. I will present ongoing work to extract SZ signals in data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and how…
A New Era of Planetary Astrophysics with JWST and High-Resolution Spectrographs
Cody Hall
Björn Benneke, Université de Montréal
March 27, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: We are at the dawn of a new era of planetary astronomy. With our first big JWST exoplanet results coming out and a new generation of high-resolution spectrographs going into service, our initial results leave little doubt that the upcoming decade presents a unique opportunity…
DADDAA Faculty Search: Growing Early Supermassive Black Holes in a Cosmological Context
AB88
Dr. Feige Wang
March 26, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: The existence of luminous quasars, powered by billion-solar-mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs), when the Universe was less than 800 million years old, challenges our understanding of black hole formation. In the context of hierarchical structure formation, an assortment of cosmological simulations can produce these…
A Thousand Earths: A Constellation of Very Large Space Telescopes for Large-Scale Biosignature Surveys
Daniel Apai, University of Arizona
March 20, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: Thorough, population-level understanding of habitable and inhabited planets requires systematic studies of large samples of planets. However, the very slow growth of the light-collecting area of space telescopes and their very high costs remain severely limiting factors for exoplanet and biosignature studies. I will…
Searching for Cosmic Dawn and Beyond with Radio Observations
Cynthia Chiang, McGill University
March 13, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: Observations of redshifted 21-cm emission of neutral hydrogen are a rapidly growing area of cosmology research. Measurements of the radio sky at ~200 MHz and below are a promising tool for exploring cosmic dawn, and at the lowest frequencies (tens of MHz), future observations…
DADDAA Faculty Search: “Quest for the Most Distant Universe – Today and Beyond”
MS 4171 (Medical Sciences Building)
Dr. Seiji Fujimoto
March 07, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: Finding and characterizing the earliest systems are crucial for answering fundamental cosmological questions such as the emergence of first galaxies and black holes (BHs), as well as the cosmic reionization process. The advent of JWST has advanced our capability to detect and analyze systems from…
Tracing Star Formation Across Scales: A Case Study in the Solar Neighborhood
Cody Hall
Catherine Zucker, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
March 06, 2024
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: The processes regulating star formation in galaxies act across many orders of magnitude in spatial scale. Thus, a key challenge in understanding star formation is bridging the small-scale physics within molecular clouds and the large-scale structure of spiral galaxies. Fully constraining the physics of star…