| Wed Jan 13 | Learning About Stars from Hubble’s Views of Galaxies | |
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 Hubble |
I’ll be giving an introduction to the Engage lecture series and a preview of what these talks will be like, starting with my own. We’ve all seen the amazing images of galaxies from the Hubble Space Telescope, I’ll talk about how we learn about the history of the stars in these galaxies. | |
| Wed Jan 27 | Big Flares on Little Stars | |
 The Sun |
Magnetic field reconnection, which is something like what happens when two refrigerator magnets suddenly flip when brought close together, powers explosive events called flares on the Sun. These flares emit high energy light and send charged particles whizzing through space. The much smaller stars that I study have even more powerful flare events. | |
| Wed Feb 10 | Weeds are More than Plants out of Place: Mechanisms of Plant Invasion | |
 A weed or a plant? |
Have you ever wondered why some plants in your garden struggle to become established, while other species rapidly grow, crowding out everything else? Scientists have been pondering the exact same phenomenon, and have termed those species that take over “invaders”. Plant invasions, or the movement of plants into regions where they are not naturally present, cost upwards of $300 billion dollars annually, and cause untold damage to natural ecosystems and agricultural lands. The field of “Invasion Biology” is relatively new, but the investigation of invasion, and plant invasion in particular, has grown exponentially since the inception of the field.
Dozens of theories about how and why plants invade currently exist, but virtually none of these theories have successfully predicted which plants will become invasive. Emerging investigations into plant traits (physical, physiological or genetic characteristics) are showing increasing promise in improving our ability to predict plant invasion, as well as our ability to restore native ecosystems that are more resistant to future plant invasion. In this talk, I will give examples of invasive species with high impacts both economically and ecologically, a brief history of plant invasion theories, and I will discuss the emerging field of functional ecology. I will finish with a brief discussion of how plant invasions might change in the future due to changes in global climate regimes and what this may mean for humans. |
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| Wed Feb 24 | Galaxies in a Different Light: Astronomy in X-rays, Optical, IR, and Radio | |
 Galaxies in different lights |
To fully study galaxies and understand their variety and splendor, we must collect and analyze radiation emitted throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum. I will tell about how these four space-based observatories have accomplished this goal, collecting light ranging in wavelength from a few angstroms to hundreds of microns. Using these different types of light from neighboring galaxies, astronomers can study subjects like star formation and interstellar dust at high resolution, giving us the ability to figure out the details in how galaxy change and evolve over time. Come as I share some key results and stunning images from astronomy’s flagship observatories. | |
| Wed Mar 10 | Big Bang to an Immigrant Sun: the Birth and Life of Spiral Galaxies | |
 Computer made spiral galaxy |
In this talk I will try to illuminate some fundamental ideas about the growth of galaxies like our own Milky Way. I will begin with the cosmic context and gradually focus on increasingly detailed aspects of galactic disks, some of which defy basic expectations. I will illustrate that to understand some of these phenomena, it may be necessary to imagine stars like our own Sun as galactic travelers, rapidly and unexpectedly changing their residence within the Milky Way. | |
| Wed Mar 17th | Galactic Gas: Simulating Stellar Birthplaces | |
 Galactic Gas |
Although nearly impossible to observe, free-floating molecular hydrogen gas makes up the coldest and densest parts of galaxies. Within these thick clouds of gas, stars and planetary systems are born and without it galaxies would be dim and starless. Using computers to simulate the formation and evolution of galaxies, we see where this gas congregates and model its transformation into stars. | |
| Wed Apr 7 | Brown Dwarfs: The Little Stars That Couldn’t | |
 Stars to Scale |
Brown dwarfs are objects that form like stars, but are too small to sustain hydrogen burning in their cores. Within the past 15 years, we’ve gone from the discovery of the first brown dwarf to the assembly of samples of hundreds of these objects. We’ll review what is currently known about brown dwarfs, and talk about the most interesting questions that remain in current brown dwarf research. | |
| Wed Apr 21 | The Importance of Plants on our Urban Environments | |
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Plants |
Plants play many key roles in our urban environment and are an important part of a healthy urban landscape. This talk will explore the role of plants in cities, the importance of the practice of urban horticulture, and how urban residents can contribute to a healthy and thriving urban landscape. | |
| Wed May 5 | Survey Science: The Universe at Our Fingertips | |
 | Modern telescopic surveys of the sky are transforming the field of astronomy by giving us a broader and unbiased view of astronomical phenomena, such as how galaxies are distributed in our universe, and what makes stars and quasars variable. In this talk I will discuss the benefits of using large surveys in astronomy, how it is achieved, and what astrophysical questions I aim to address using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. | |
| Wed May 19 | Earth as an Extrasolar Planet | |
 | In the spring of 2008, the EPOXI mission (NASA/JPL) captured images of Earth from over 10 million miles away. By combining these data with our models, we can begin to understand what the Earth might look like if we viewed it from far outside the Solar System. These efforts are critical components in the design process of the next generation of Hubble-like telescopes, which will be the first missions capable of directly detecting light from Earth-like extrasolar planets. | |
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Talks
Doors open at 6:45, talks start at 7:00 and last about a half hour in the Physics Astronomy Auditorium Building Room 118
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at least ten days in advance at: 206.543.6450/V, 206.543.6452/TTY, 206.685.7264 (FAX), or dso@u.washington.edu
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