Colloquia Schedule Spring 2017

One Minute Colloquium

Astronomy Department and McDonald Observatory Personnel

The University of Texas at Austin

Organizer: Brendan Bowler

The OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

On September 8, an Atlas 5 rocket left the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft towards a rendezvous with asteroid Bennu in the Fall of 2018. When it returns to the Earth in 2023, it will carry with it the largest sample of extraterrestrial material returned to the Earth since the end of the manned missions to the moon over 40 years ago.

I will discuss the mission’s objectives, spacecraft science payload, instrument capabilities, and science operations timeline at the asteroid. I will also touch on some of the time-sensitive, operational challenges that require close collaboration between the science and operations teams. Finally, I will describe the plans for curating and distributing the sample to the scientific community.

Speaker Bio: From 2012 through launch in October of 2016, Ed Beshore was the Deputy Principal Investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission. Before that time, he was the Principal Investigator of the Catalina Sky Survey, a prolific discoverer of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).  Before coming to the University of Arizona, Beshore was a software engineer for the Boeing and Hewlett-Packard companies,the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory, and was a senior partner in a technical marketing firm. Beshore retired from the University of Arizona in October, 2016.

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Ed Beshore

The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

host: Anita Cochran

Observing the Evolution of Solids in Protoplanetary Disks

abstract

Sean Andrews

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

host: Adam Kraus

Theory Frontiers Meeting

Faculty Candidate Talks

Faculty Candidate Talks

Faculty Candidate Talks

Faculty Candidate Talks

Spring Break
No colloquium

External Review
No colloquium

PostDoc Colloquium (3 talks)

Effect of supersonic gas streams on the primordial star formation

Shingo Hirano, The University of Texas at Austin

IGRINS (the traveling spectrometer) and what it can tell us about YSOs

Kim Sokal, The University of Texas at Austin

A Faint Flux-Limited LAE Sample at z = 0.3

Isak Wold, The University of Texas at Austin

host: Mike Boylan-Kolchin

Debris Disks: Tracers of Planet Formation

abstract

Kate Su

The University of Arizona Steward Observatory

Harriet Dinerstein/Adam Kraus

Small Planets Transiting Nearby Small Stars

abstract

Zach Berta-Thompson

University of Colorado, Boulder

host: Cynthia Froning

The Grand Planetary Ensemble

abstract

Sarah Ballard

MIT Kavli Institute

host: Michael Endl

The Growth of the Most Massive Galaxies in the Highest Density Regions: Evidence for In-Situ Star Formation in SpARCS Brightest Cluster Galaxies

abstract

Tracy Webb

McGill University

host: Caitlin Casey

Planet Formation: the Direct Approach

abstract

Lisa Prato

Lowell Observatory

host: Fritz Benedict