Aug. 30

Not your Parents' M Dwarfs: Probing the Milky Way with its Smallest Constituents (Cancelled due to Hurricane Irene: to be rescheduled)

abstract

Andrew A. West

Boston University

host: Colette Salyk

Sept. 6

Maxwell, Einstein, and Their Impossibilities

abstract

Mark G. Raizen

Center for Nonlinear Dynamics & Dept. of Physics, University of Texas at Austin

hosts: Paul Shapiro & Tanja Rindler-Daller

Sept. 13

Dark Matter, Dwarf Galaxies, and Massive Failures in the Halo of the Milky Way

abstract

James S. Bullock

University of California, Irvine

host: TBD

Sept. 20

Black Hole Scaling Relations

abstract

Kayhan Gultekin

University of Michigan

host: Karl Gebhardt

Sept. 27

The Quest for the Dynamical Signature of Close Supermassive Binary Black Holes

abstract

Michael Eracleous

Pennsylvania State University

host: Julie Comerford

Oct. 4

What is a Galaxy?

abstract

Beth Willman

Haverford College

host: TBD

Oct. 11

No talk scheduled, to avoid conflict with Frank N. Bash Symposium
(held: October 9-11, 2011).

Oct. 18

Status update on the James Webb Space Telescope project

abstract

Jane Rigby

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

host: TBD

Oct. 25

GAMA: from Little Blue Fuzzies to Massive Red Monsters and Beyond

abstract

Sarah Brough

Swinburne University

host: Karl Gebhardt

Nov. 1

Casting Shadows on the Standard Interstellar Medium Paradigm with GALFA-HI

abstract

Joshua E. G. Peek

Columbia University

host: Sarah Tuttle

Nov. 8

Beatrice M. Tinsley Visiting Scholar

The Origins of Planetary Systems - Constraints from Protoplanetary Disks

What is the origin of the Solar System and other planetary systems? We are living in an exciting era where the history of the Solar System is being revealed by in-situ measurements and sample returns from solar system objects, laboratory analysis of meteorites, and by astronomical observations.

Here I will discuss how the study the protoplanetary disks can shed light on this fundamental question. First, I will show how the physical evolution of protoplanetary disks (grain growth, dust settling, and the dispersal of primordial gas) informs us on the timescales and mechanisms to form giant planets. Then, I will present recent results on the chemical diversity and evolution of protoplanetary disks. I will conclude by discussing an ongoing effort to observationally trace the evolution of volatiles in disks with implications on their delivery to terrestrial planets.

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Ilaria Pascucci

University of Arizona

host: John Lacy

Nov. 15

No talk scheduled.

Nov. 22

No talk scheduled.

Nov. 29

Stellar Forensics with Explosions: Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and their Environments

abstract

Maryam Modjaz

New York University, Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics

host: Sarah Tuttle

Dec. 13

HETDEX Special Colloquium

Astrophotonics and Space Photonics: A New Era of Instrumentation

abstract

Lisa Fogarty

University of Sydney, School of Physics

host: Sarah Tuttle