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: 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: 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