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: 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: Twinklin Stars and LIGO Detections

Tonight we helped kick off Pasadena Astronomy Week with our first of three consecutive Astronomy on Tap events.  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.  And our Astronomy on Tap focused on many of these topics where scientists from Caltech, JPL, IPAC, Carnegie Observatories, and more have had a serious impact on our understanding of the heavens.  Tonight we had two Caltech astronomers, Dr. Ji Wang, and Dr. Astrid Lamberts talking about their relative fields of study.

All photographs were taken by Christophe Marcade.

Astrid talked about the recent LIGO announcement of a gravitational wave detection of two black holes colliding and merging.  She discussed her recent paper wherein she tries to determine the location of the two black holes and what sorts of galaxies these black holes resided.  Very interesting stuff!

Ji talked about his use of adaptive optics to remove the blurriness of images taken from earth-bound telescopes.  Turbulence in the atmosphere between us and distant astronomical objects causes stars to twinkle.  While this is a nice effect for the casual observer, for professional astronomers it introduces blurring in long-exposure images, which makes it difficult to image astronomical objects accurately.  Adaptive optics actually bends and warps a telescope's mirror hundreds of times a second in order to account for the turbulence in the atmosphere, enabling observers like Ji to detect planets around other stars.  Terrific talk, Ji!

Finally, we had a great quiz with lots of participants and some happy winners who got NASA Tshirts and mugs.  Thanks to all of the 130 attendees tonight!

--Cameron

Lecture & Stargazing: Black Holes Don't Suck

During tonight's lecture, Chiara Mingarelli taught us all about black holes: why they are black, how they interact with their environments, and the various ways astronomers can detect them.  Importantly, she broke down the common misconception of black holes acting as vacuum cleaners, and conclusively demonstrated that black holes *don't* suck, they just act like any other concentration of mass.

Photo credit for all images: Christophe Marcade

After the lecture, we had some stargazing with the telescopes outside.  Despite the somewhat patchy clouds present, we were still able to see many of the planetary highlights in the sky, including Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and the Moon.

We also had a Q&A panel from some of our resident experts on a variety of topics including supernovae, exoplanets, gravitational waves, and galaxies.  There were a host of questions regarding cosmology and gravitational waves, but we had some good discussions on subject spanning all of astrophysics and space exploration.  

If you wish to see a recording of the lecture and subsequent Q&A panel, you can view them here.  Thanks to the hundred or so people who turned up!

--Cameron