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

Lecture & Stargazing: Hot Jupiters

We hosted famed Professor Konstantin Batygin tonight for a lecture on his theory for the potential origin of Hot Jupiters, a class of massive exoplanets found near their host stars.  Professor Batygin is famous for his work with Mike Brown on Planet 9, that there is an undiscovered planet in the outer solar system influencing the dynamics of massive Kuiper-belt objects, but tonight he talked about exoplanets instead.  Professor Batygin gave a really engaging, but pretty advanced talk on how Hot Jupiters, *could* form in situ without the need for migrating inward as the popular paradigm currently dictates.  It was thought-provoking and well-delivered--thank you, Konstantin!

Afterwards, we were able to observe on the newly renovated athletic fields near Cahill, and the athletics department even turned off some of their stadium lights for us.  Great views of the heavens tonight!

Finally, we had a Q&A panel that covered a large number of question topics ranging from exoplanets to the origins of the cosmos.  Thanks to everyone who stuck around for a question!

--Cameron

Astronomy on Tap: Edwin Hubble and Earth-like Planets

We hosted another Astronomy on Tap event at Der Wolfskopf Pub tonight, and everyone had a great time.  We started the night with a stellar talk by Dr. Marja Seidel, a postdoc at the Carnegie Institute in Pasadena. Marja's talk was entitled "Galaxies with Edwin", and it was a comic-style presentation telling the story of how Edwin Hubble (and Henrietta Leavitt) discovered that our Milky Way galaxy was not the entirety of the Universe.  It was a great topic and a really innovative manner of presenting!

  

Next up, Dr. Calen Henderson, a postdoc at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, gave us a compelling presentation on the search for Earth-like planets in the Universe.  His talk "Earth through the Looking Glass" discussed why we search for Earth analogs, how we do it, and what are the prospects for finding life elsewhere in the Universe.  It's very relevant information, especially with the recent discovery of an Earth analog in our neighborhood at Proxima Centaur B.

We had several winners of our astronomical-themed pub quiz with some NASA shirts and hats as prizes.  Congratulations to all of the participants!  We look forward to seeing everyone next month!

--Cameron

Lecture & Stargazing: You Can't Spell Exoplanets without Ex(ecutions)

It was another busy night in Cahill for our lecture and stargazing. First up was Jessie Christiansen, talking about the existing history and study of extra-solar planets. Jessie first went through the (surprisingly!) long history of the idea of planets beyond our own solar system. As early as the middle ages, scientists thought about planets around other stars (usually with bad results!). But in the last twenty years, exoplanets have gone from being dismissed or ignored by astronomers to a vibrant field of study with thousands of detected planets. Jessie also discussed the efforts of the Kepler telescope, which has provided thousands of planet detections on its own. Jessie finished by describing some of the more incredible planets we've found- including one with liquid glass rain, some new baby planets, and others! 

After the lecture, Erika Hamden gave a short presentation on the Perseid meteor shower, which peaked the night before. Unfortunately for our star gazers, the best time to see the shower was later in the night (when our wonderful telescope volunteers would be long gone), but Erika encouraged everyone to get to dark sky sights to see other meteor showers in the future.

Lastly, we had a great Q&A panel, discussing planets, life in the universe, telescopes, and black holes. A fabulous evening for all!

On the stargazing front, three telescopes observed Mars, Saturn, and the Moon to start, before switching over to other dark sky targets later in the night. Some of our attendees looked studiously for meteors, but there were only a few sightings so early in the night. This will be our last star gazing from the north field for a few months, while the athletic department installs a turf field. Be on the look out for information on our new location for the next few months!

--Erika

Astronomy on Tap: Exoplanet Roulette

Tonight we had our very first ever Astronomy on Tap event held in Los Angeles, and it was a wild success!  Astronomy on Tap is a nation-wide phenomenon where professional astronomers give informal talks in local bars on a variety of scientific topics followed by lots of discussion and interaction with the public.  Until now, there have been no organized events happening in Los Angeles, but we at Caltech are partnering with several other neighboring educational institutions to make this happen.

We held our first event at Der Wolfskopf, a german beer bar located in Old Town Pasadena gracious enough to offer us happy hour prices all night on food and on one of their beers.  The event was structured to have two short astronomically-themed talks with 15-minute intermission periods separating them.  During each intermission, audience members were encouraged to talk to the astronomers present in addition to playing our astronomy quiz that was being broadcast on the television sets.

Dr. Jessie Christiansen gave our talk for the night entitled "Exoplanet Roulette: Choose your Fate".  The premise is that you have the opportunity to travel to some exoplanet in the Universe, but you don't know which one.  By spinning the game wheel, you discover which exoplanet where you'll end up.

A couple of the exoplanets were happy endings for our audience members, but by and large the bulk of the exoplanets that have thus far been discovered are not very hospitable to human life.

Unfortunately, our second speaker had an emergency and wasn't able to join us.  We had a short panel Q&A with the variety of astronomers present, where prizes were awarded for particularly good questions from the audience.  Lastly, we finished the night by grading the trivia quizzes that people had submitted.  There was a three-way tie with 8/10 correct, and each winner won a prize of a NASA shirt or mug.  Congratulations to all of our winners!

Thanks to all 70 of the attendees and we hope you'll spread the word about our next event in a month on Monday, July 25 at 7:30PM.

--Cameron