Past Colloquia
65 years after Sputnik: A critical juncture in humanity’s use of space
Zoom
Fred Lamb, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
February 02, 2022
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Abstract: Near-Earth space has become increasingly valuable and its use has grown enormously in recent years. This is having a dramatic impact on the space environment, which is very vulnerable and can easily be ruined by irresponsible behavior or a small number of destructive actions…
Lonely Planets – direct imaging discoveries of gas giant exoplanets with the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey
Zoom
Prof. Matthew Kenworthy, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands
January 26, 2022
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Abstract: We have indirectly detected thousands of planets beyond our Solar System through the effect they have on their parent stars, either by the reflex motion of their orbit or when the planet’s orbit causes the planet to transit the disk of the star. For…
Cosmic gas flows in the circumgalactic medium
Zoom
Freeke van de Voort, Cardiff University
January 19, 2022
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Galaxies are intimately connected to the environments they live in. The haloes around them contain the gas reservoir from which the galaxies grow, while galactic outflows heat and enrich this ‘circumgalactic medium’ (CGM). Using ‘zoom-in’ cosmological, magnetohydrodynamical simulations, I will discuss the physical and observable properties of the gas around…
Inside the magnetic tunnel: How radio maps reveal the structure of our Milky Way’s magnetic field
Zoom
Jennifer West, University of Toronto
January 12, 2022
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Our view of the sky is a complicated superposition of objects that are both near and far. Disentangling this information is challenging, but essential to a complete understanding of our Galaxy, and the Universe. In this talk, I will discuss the brightest, large-scale, diffuse, polarized…
Colloquium with Gwendolyn Eadie and Suresh Sivanandam
Zoom
December 15, 2021
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Globular Cluster Systems and Their Relationship to Galaxy Stellar Mass – by Gwendolyn Eadie Abstract: All galaxies with large stellar mass appear to have a globular cluster (GC) population, but the same cannot be said of all galaxies with small stellar mass. At the…
Dragonfly: What it is, why it works, latest news, and plans for the future
Zoom
Roberto Abraham, University of Toronto
December 08, 2021
2:00 pm - 3:00pm
Abstract: I will describe the operating principles behind mosaic telescopes and describe how the Dragonfly Telephoto Array is an implementation of these ideas. New results on stellar halos and on galaxies lacking dark matter will be shown. Finally, I will describe progress being made on turning Dragonfly into an…
Studying planet formation with ALMA: DSHARP and beyond
Zoom
Andrea Isella, Rice University
December 01, 2021
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
ALMA observations of circumstellar disks obtained by the “Disk Substractures at High Angular Resolution Project” (DSHARP) have revealed that the dust distribution in several circumstellar disks is characterized by small-scale structures. Dust rings are the most common features, but crescent and spiral arms were also observed….
The Long and Winding Road: My path as an educator
Zoom
Prof. Greg Evans, P.Eng, FCEA, FAAAS, FCAAE, University of Toronto
November 24, 2021
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Learning to teach is often a private process, that we pursue on a public stage. In contrast with the way we discover new knowledge in our laboratories or instruct fundamentals in our classrooms, teaching is most often learnt experientially with little to no scaffolding to…
Insights into relativistic gravity and stellar evolution from pulsar timing
Zoom
Professor Matthew Bailes, Swinburne University of Technology/OzGrav
November 17, 2021
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Binary pulsars have given us remarkable insights into many aspects of gravity and stellar evolution. In this talk I will show how both long and patient timing campaigns and new instruments such as the South African MeerKAT telescope are providing new insights into the interstellar…
Towards a better understanding of low-mass galaxies beyond the Local Group
Zoom
Shany Danieli, Princeton University
November 10, 2021
11:00am - 12:00 pm
Recent advances in telescope instrumentation and image analysis techniques have opened up a new window into the low surface brightness Universe. In particular, they now enable comprehensive and systematic investigations of low-mass galaxies beyond the Local Group. Their number densities, structures, and internal dynamics can…