Astronomy on Tap: Black Holes and Exoplanets!

Astronomy on Tap hit two very different topics tonight: black hole simulations, and observations of our nearest exoplanet, Proxima b.  Starting us off, Maria Okounkova, discussed the history of numerical relativity simulations of how black holes behave when interacting and merging, and made this easily understandable by comparing it with the television program The Great British Bakeoff.  Numerical relativity has enabled such recent discoveries as the LIGO gravitational wave detection of 2015.

After Maria, we had a talk by visiting scientist, Dr. Devin Silvia, who described the recent discovery of Proxima b, an exoplanet orbiting the closest star outside of our solar system.  With a bit of humor, he covered why it's important to have discovered this planet, and the possibility of us ever visiting it in our lifetime!

Thanks to everyone for the great turnout, and good job to all participants in a very difficult quiz.  See you next month!

--Cameron

Astronomy on Tap: Gravitational Lensing, Galaxy Evolution, and Social Justice

Our March Astronomy on Tap, on the day before Pi Day, was one for the ages! Dr. Rachael Livermore, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, happened to be visiting the area, so she began by explaining the fundamentals of gravitational lensing and showing how galaxy clusters can bend light on cosmological scales. Rachael founded the Astronomy on Tap chapter in Austin, and her experience showed as she wielded science and the stage in a masterful and informative way!

The intermission featured a surprise musical interlude, led by Dr. Gary Blackwood, the manager of the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program. In what was the Galactic Premier of his song 'The Exoplaneteers,' Gary sang about the basics of the primary exoplanet detection techniques and introduced his new verse about the fascinating TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system --- all in rhyming meter, no less! With everyone in a singing mood, we subsequently sang happy birthday to Cameron Hummels, who is the founder of the Pasadena Astronomy on Tap chapter and who was in attendance!

Our final speaker was Dr. Jorge Moreno, a professor at Cal Poly Pomona who will soon make the exciting transition to a professor position at Pomona College. In his Astronomy on Tap debut, Jorge taught the crowd about how galaxies collide and merge and the computer simulations he and other astronomers write to help understand the underlying physics. To conclude, Jorge gave a second talk regarding diversity and social justice within astronomy specifically and the United States more generally. Jorge is Chair of the Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy, and gave a riveting speech about the under-representation of several demographics within astronomy, and what individuals can to do promote awareness and change the culture from within.

Thanks to Rachael, Gary, and Jorge for a wonderful program, and to the packed crowd of astronomers and non-astronomers alike. We look forward to seeing y'all again at the next Astronomy on Tap event on Monday, April 17th! Tell all your friends and family!

--Calen

Astronomy on Tap: Galaxies and Pulsars Explained

Astronomy on Tap this evening was blessed with two very effective speakers: Dr. Louis Abramson, a postdoc at UCLA, and Anna Ho, a graduate student at Caltech.  Louis used a particularly novel means of describing how galaxies form, evolve, and die by comparing them to how humans are born, live our lives, and die.  This analogy held particularly well in talking about how the environment in which one lives affects one's overall life, whether it's in a big city (galaxy cluster) or in a rural area (void).  

Anna talked about pulsars, the end point of massive stars, and how we detect them with a variety of instruments.  She discussed the history of these exotic objects, and how they were initially thought to be alien signals!  Overall it was a great talk followed with lots of questions!

We had our usual quiz afterwards, and I guess I made the quiz too easy, since we had 6 people get 10/10!  I had to use a tie-breaker question to narrow down the winners to give adequate prizes.  Thanks, everyone for coming!

--Cameron

Astronomy on Tap: Vera Rubin, Dark Matter, and the Slow Speed of Light

We kicked off the New Year properly with the first Astronomy on Tap of 2017!  From the beginning, there was a very large crowd, and quite attentive to the wonder filled night to come. We started things off with a timely talk on “The Discovery of Dark Matter: Vera Rubin’s missing Nobel Prize” by Dr. Johanna Teske, a postdoc at the Carnegie Institute.  Johanna discussed the life of Dr. Vera Rubin, an astronomer who was instrumental in the discovery of dark matter, and yet was over looked for the Nobel prize. Her talk also focused on what dark matter actually is, and how it is important to understanding our universe.

 At the end of her talk, Johanna was bombarded with an endless number of questions ranging from dark matter to exoplanets.

Dr. Adric Riedel, who is a postdoc at Caltech, presented the second talk of the evening. Adric’s talk was titled “The Speed of Light is Slow” and he most certainly made sure that we left there fully experiencing the reasons why. Adric presented the audience with illustrations and movies showing the audience just how slow the speed of light actually compared to the vastness of space, with video and images of Star Wars scenes interspersed throughout the talk.

Here is a brief movie taken of Adric's talk demonstrating just how slow the speed of light is:

After the talks, we moved to the astronomy-themed pub quiz.  The quiz this time was relatively difficult, but a large chunk of the audience participated and we handed out prizes in the form of a NASA hat and Hubble Telescope booklet. All in all, the night was a great success with a massive turnout. Here’s to the next one!

--Rahul

Astronomy on Tap: Galaxies!

All photographs were taken by Christophe Marcade.

Tonight we finished off our astronomy events for the year with two great talks by local astronomers at our Astronomy on Tap series.  The theme of the night was galaxies, and the talks did not disappoint.  First off, we had UCLA postdoc Jordan Mirocha talking about his area of research, the formation of the first galaxies in the universe.

Next, we had a delightful talk by Caltech graduate student, Ivanna Escala, discussing the various ways in which galaxies can get ripped apart, starved of their star-forming fuel, or eaten by larger galaxies!

It was a fun night and a great way to finish off the year.  Have a great holiday, everyone.  See you in January!

--Cameron

Astronomy on Tap: Space Robots and Black Hole Jeopardy

Tonight's Astronomy on Tap event was an exciting one, featuring talks on some very popular topics including the search for life in the universe and black holes!  Attendance was a little light, probably due to this week being the Thanksgiving holiday, but I think all the attendees had a good time regardless.  We started off with a talk by Ricky Nilsson, who discussed the probability that extraterrestrial life may exist, and in what form such life might find itself.  This argument featured the famous Drake Equation detailing the uncertainties in how detecting life, intelligent life, and intelligent life capable of communicating with us over the vast distances of the cosmos.  

Next up was Hannalore Gerling-Dunsmore, who put together a whole game show called "Black Hole Jeopardy" for audience members.  Black hole information sheets were placed around the room over the course of the night, so people could familiarize themselves with information about black holes.  Then three lucky contestants were selected from our audience (professional astronomers were barred from participating).  These contestants played a modification on the popular game: Jeopardy! with black hole-related questions.  While Hannalore's questions were very challenging, even to those of us with formal training in astrophysics, the contestants did pretty well, and they were rewarded with NASA-related prizes like tshirts and pint glasses.  I think everyone learned something about black holes from this event.

Lastly, the astronomy pub quiz had some great questions regarding the space program, cerenkov radiation, and Star Wars.  Everyone got really into it, and the top 2 participants got science prizes from JPL.  Thanks everyone for coming out and see you next month!

--Cameron

Astronomy on Tap: Dark Matter and Mars-based Meteorites

We had our final Astronomy on Tap event for Pasadena Astronomy Week.  Pasadena Astronomy Week is a series of events showcasing the ways in which Pasadena-based institutions have made important contributions to the field of astronomy and astrophysics.  Tonight's event was packed with people, partially due to the final presidential debate being on the televisions here, and partially due to the LA Dodgers playoff game bringing people in.  Fortunately, the debate ended just as we were set to start, but we left the game on mute on a few of the televisions so as to not incite a riot by baseball fans.

All photographs were taken by Christophe Marcade.

Our first speaker of the night was Dr. James Ashley, a scientists at JPL, who studies meteorites.  He taught us all about meteorites from other planets, and the vast amount of information we can learn about these planetary surfaces and atmosphere from them.  Thanks, James!

Our final speaker of the night was graduate student, Denise Schmitz, who gave us the straight dope on dark matter, what it is, how we know it's there, and how we might be able to learn more about it. It was a really spectacular talk, and everyone enjoyed it.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our events this week, and check out some of the other Pasadena Astronomy Week events through Saturday.  For more photographs from these Astronomy on Tap nights, check out the Pasadena Astronomy Week photo page.

--Cameron