Colloquia Schedule Spring 2016

"Spirals, Gaps, and Cavities: Signposts of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks?"

We are about to enter a golden age in the field of planet formation and circumstellar disks, thanks to a fleet of new instruments with unprecedented resolving power. In the past few years, technological advances in adaptive optics and the use of differential imaging techniques have enabled us to achieve angular resolutions of 0.05 arcsec and inner working angles of 0.1 arcsec. At mm wavelengths, ALMA has brought us over one order of magnitude improvements over existing facilities in both resolution and sensitivity. Now for the first time it is possible to directly see planets forming in nearby disks. Recent observations using Subaru/HiCIAO, VLT/SPHERE, Gemini/GPI, and ALMA have revealed astonishing fine structures in gaseous protoplanetary disks, such as the rings and gaps in HL Tau and TW Hya, the giant spiral arms in MWC 758, SAO 206462, HD 100453, and FU Ori, and the central cavities in many transitional disks. These structures have been widely speculated to be related to ongoing planet formation activities, though it is not well understood exactly how. In my talk I will review major discoveries of fine structures in disks made in the past few years, and discuss their possible origins; particularly, whether they are induced by embedded planets invisible to us at the moment.

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Robin (Ruobing) Dong

LBNL/Berkeley

host: Adam Kraus

"The Key Influence of AGB Stars on the Evolution and Global Properties of Galaxies"

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Martha L. Boyer

NASA Goddard

host: Kristen McQuinn

"CAMPARE and Cal-Bridge: Two Synergistic Programs Forming a Successful New Model for Promoting Participation of Women and Underrepresented Minority Students in Astronomy"

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Alexander L. Rudolph

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

host: William Cochran

"Exoplanet Atmospheres in High Resolution"

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Jayne L. Birkby

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

host: Daniel Jaffe

"The Dynamical Evolution of Young Stellar Complexes in the Milky Way"

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Alison I. Sills

McMaster University, Hamilton, ON

host: Natalie Gosnell

"The Evolution of Galaxy Structural Properties"

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Rachel Somerville

Rutgers University, Downsbrough Chair in Astrophysics

host: Shardha Jogee

"A PHAT New Measurement of the High-Mass Stellar IMF"

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Daniel Weisz

UC Berkeley/University of Washington

host: Michael Boylan-Kolchin

"The Role of Dwarf-Dwarf Galaxy Interactions in Galaxy Assembly"

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Sabrina Stierwalt

NRAO/University of Virginia

host: Kristen McQuinn

No colloquium scheduled. (Spring Break)

"Exploring the z~2.3 Cosmic Web with 3D Lyman-Alpha Forest Tomography"

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Khee-Gan Lee

UC Berkeley/LBNL

host: Caitlin Casey

"Understanding Galaxy Evolution with Massive Starburst Galaxies"

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Hai Fu

University of Iowa

host: Caitlin Casey

"Implications from the Detection of the Binary Black Hole Inspiral GW150914"

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Matthew Benacquista

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

host: J. Craig Wheeler

Stellar Seminar talk Date/Time: Wed., 12 Noon: "Title: TBA"

David Yong (Stellar Tinsley Scholar)

Mt. Stromlo Observatory, Australia

host: Fritz Benedict

"The Calm Before the Storm: Exploring the Post Accretionary Doldrums Prior to the Late Heavy Bombardment"

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William F. Bottke (Planetary Tinsley Scholar)

Southwest Research Instutite, Boulder, Colorado

host: Mike Endl/Judit Ries

"Disk Galaxy Assembly Across Cosmic Time: Combining Magnitude-limited Survey with Gravitational Lensing"

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Tiantian Yuan (Exgal Tinsley Scholar)

Australia National University

host: Chao-Ling Hung

"The Discovery and Characterization of the Y Dwarfs"

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Michael Cushing

University of Toledo

host: Brendan Bowler

"What can Binaries tell us about Planet Formation?"

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Kaitlin M. Kratter (ISM Tinsley Scholar)

Steward Observatory, University of Arizona

host: Adam Kraus