Media
Cosmic Videos
Astronomy Talk: Planet 9 From Outer Space
Guest Speaker: Mike Brown Director Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution (The Guy Who Killed Pluto) In the past 175 years, more than 30 separate astronomers have suggested the existence of a giant planet beyond Neptune. They have always been wrong. In 2016, Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Konstantin Batygin joined the list, suggesting that Planet […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Imaging Other Worlds: Today and Tomorrow
Guest Speaker: Dr. Michael Liu Astronomer University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy Direct imaging is a key method to study planets around other stars, a.k.a. exoplanets. Thanks to both astronomical and instrumental advances, the largest ground-based telescopes can now obtain images and spectra of gas-giant (Jupiter-like) planets. Dr. Liu will share what these studies with […]
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Astronomy Talk: Where I Explore, Where We Explore From The South Pole To Mars To Exoplanets
Guest Speaker: Christine Moran Deputy Manager NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Exploring is fundamental to being human, one of the cornerstones of why we do science, and why Dr. Moran has taken her personal career journey. What was it like living at the South Pole for almost a year? How do […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: The World’s Most Powerful Pair of Eyeglasses: Keck Adaptive Optics
Guest Speaker: Dr. Jim Lyke Adaptive Optics Operations Lead Astronomer Keck Observatory Dr. Lyke will give a fun and informative overview of Keck’s productive use of a technology that sharpens its view of the universe. Adaptive Optics (AO) is central to many of Keck’s greatest discoveries. Get ready to enjoy some of Keck’s best images […]
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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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