Sep. 3

See the handbills posted around the department for the details of the special colloquium that is being held today.

abstract

Special Colloquium Speaker

Sep. 10

See the handbills posted around the department for the details of the special colloquium that is being held today.

abstract

Special Colloquium Speaker

Sep. 17

See the handbills posted around the department for the details of the special colloquium that is being held today.

abstract

Special Colloquium Speaker

Wed.
Sep. 25

See the handbills posted around the department for the details of the special colloquium that is being held today.

abstract

Special Colloquium Speaker

This presentation being held at 3:00 pm during the Cosmos Seminar time-slot.

Oct. 1

"The Present and Future of Exoplanets with Precise Radial Velocities"

abstract

Jason T. Wright

Pennsylvania State University

host: Adam Kraus

Oct. 8

Frank N. Bash Symposium 2013: New Horizons in Astronomy: 6-8 October 2013. No Colloquium presentation scheduled on 8 October, to avoid conflict.

Oct. 15

Tinsley Visiting Scholar/Planetary Group

"Accessing the Atmospheres of Terrestrial Exoplanets"

As our ability to detect smaller exoplanets continues to improve, it becomes critical to develop techniques that are capable of measuring the physical properties of the atmospheres of these planets. We have had success in probing the atmospheres of giant exoplanets, but atmospheres of terrestrial planets present a major challenge, not only because of the reduction in size, but also because the physical properties (and therefore the observational signatures) of terrestrial planet atmospheres are dramatically different than those of giants. Despite the difficulty, an elemental inventory of a terrestrial planet atmospheres provides information about the planet's formation, interior structure, geological evolution, and (as is the case for Earth) biological evolution. While atmospheric characterization of a true Earth analog is perhaps some time away, it is currently possible to do so for exoplanets at the terrestrial planet boundary, the so-called Super-Earths (M < 10 M-Earth). Currently, there are two observational approaches for which the HET is particularly well suited to make a significant impact and enable the achievement of important milestones in the observations of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres. I will discuss the possibility of: (1) broadband observations of Rayleigh scattering using multi-object or integral field instruments. Rayleigh scattering is the dominant atmospheric signature of terrestrial planets in the optical, and absolutely critical to evaluating infrared observations. (2) high-resolution transmission spectroscopy of H alpha which is sensitive to exoplanetary exospheres. The expansive extent of a planetary exosphere can lead to much stronger observational signature, and therefore makes such observations around smaller exoplanets possible even if measurements of the bound atmosphere are not. I will also discuss the prospects of future observations of Super-Earth atmospheres from space using HST and/or JWST.

close

Seth Redfield

Wesleyan University

host: Michael Endl

Oct. 22

"Large-Scale Surveys of Star Formation in the Milky Way"

abstract

Peter Barnes

University of Florida

host: Neal Evans

Oct. 29

"Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: The Search Continues"

abstract

Tamara Bogdanovic

Georgia Institute of Technology

host: Steve Finkelstein

Nov. 5

"Observational Hallmarks of Evolution and Planet Formation in Circumstellar Disks"

abstract

Sean Andrews

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

host: Neal Evans

Nov. 12

"The Role of Large Herschel Surveys in the Fields of Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology"

abstract

Marco Viero

California Institute of Technology

host: Karl Gebhardt

Nov. 19

"Galaxy Evolution at High Redshifts: Lyman-alpha and Other Lines"

abstract

Sangeeta Malhotra

Arizona State University

host: Steve Finkelstein

Nov. 26

"Revealing Cosmic Origins: from Exoplanet Atmospheres to the Intergalactic Medium with the HST Cosmic Origins Spectrograph"

abstract

Cindi Froning

University of Texas at Austin

host: Edward Robinson

Dec. 3

"A CMB Perspective of the Epoch of Reionization"

abstract

Christian Reichardt

University of California, Berkeley

host: Paul Shapiro

Dec. 10
2:30 pm

"Dark Matter in the Smallest Galaxies"

abstract

Matthew Walker

Carnegie-Mellon University

host: Andrew Mann