Media
Cosmic Videos
Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Galaxies Viewed Through Cosmic Magnifying Glasses
Guest Speaker: Dr. Tucker Jones Astronomy Professor University of California at Davis The gravitational field of massive objects distorts space and time, even acting as a “gravitational lens” by deflecting the path of light. This phenomenon serves as a natural magnifying glass to provide unparalleled views of the distant universe. Although strong lens systems are […]
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Astronomy Talk: Lifting the Fog on the Early Universe
Guest Speaker: Steven Finkelstein Associate Professor of Astronomy, Provost’s Teaching Fellow University of Texas at Austin Just after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a fog of cool hydrogen gas. When the first stars and galaxies began to form, energetic light from these objects heated and ionized this gas, removing the electrons from […]
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Astronomy Talk: Exploring Galaxies and Beyond
Guest Speaker: Lauren Corlies Deputy Head of Education and Public Outreach Vera C. Rubin Observatory Galaxies turn gas into giant collections of stars that light up the universe. This simple statement of what happens with galaxies like our own leads to deeper questions of how this happens: How does gas flow into galaxies? How do […]
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Astronomy Talk: Cosmic Fireworks
Guest Speaker: Mansi Kasliwal Assistant Professor California Institute of Technology Our dynamic universe is adorned by cosmic fireworks: energetic and ephemeral beacons of light that are a million (nova) to a billion (supernova) times brighter than our Sun. Fireworks synthesize most elements in our periodic table – while supernovae synthesize the lighter elements, neutron star […]
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Astronomy Talk: Decoding the Contents of Distant Galaxies
Guest Speaker: Alice Shapley Professor and Vice Chair for Astronomy and Astrophysics University of California, Los Angeles Our Milky Way is one of countless galaxies in the universe. Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies remains one of the great challenges of modern cosmology. Key outstanding questions include: What drives stars to form in individual […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Using Keck to Explore Planetary Systems Orbiting Nearby Stars
Guest Speaker: Dr. Courtney Dressing Astronomy Professor University of California at Berkeley The search for extrasolar planets has uncovered a dizzying array of planetary systems. We have found new planet types — lava worlds and super-Earths – as well as planets orbiting more than one star. These discoveries give us tantalizing clues about how our […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Searching for Earth-like Planets with the Keck Planet Finder
Guest Speaker: Dr. Andrew Howard Astronomy Professor California Institute of Technology The search for extrasolar planets has uncovered a dizzying array of planetary systems. We have found new planet types — lava worlds and super-Earths – as well as planets orbiting more than one star. These discoveries give us tantalizing clues about how our Solar […]
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Astronomy Talk: Kepler, TESS, and Keck Observatory – Driving Our Understanding of Exoplanetary Systems
Guest Speaker: David Ciardi Chief Scientist NASA Exoplanet Science Institute Launched in 2009, NASA’s Kepler revolutionized our understanding of other worlds by discovering thousands of exoplanet systems. 10 years after Kepler ended, NASA launched TESS to continue the revolution by finding planets around brighter, nearby stars. Ground-based telescopes have been critical to understanding the planets […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Planet Nine from Outer Space
Guest Speaker: Dr. Michael Brown Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy California Institute of Technology Five years ago, Dr. Brown and his team proposed that unexpected perturbations to the most distant known objects in our solar system could be explained by the existence of an unseen giant planet well beyond Neptune, gently tugging […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: SCALES: A New Keck Instrument for Imaging Exoplanets at 1000 Wavelengths Simultaneously
Guest Speaker: Dr. Andry Skemer Associate Professor, Astronomy and Physics University of California Santa Cruz Exoplanets are a class of astrophysical objects, like stars and galaxies, where a wide range of detection and characterization methods are necessary to understand their individual and collective properties. We live in an era where thousands of exoplanets have been […]
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