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

abstract

Ed Beshore

The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

host: Anita Cochran

Observing the Evolution of Solids in Protoplanetary Disks

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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

Debris disks are tenuous dusty disks generated through collisions amongst planetesimals leftover from the process of planet formation and evaporating comet-like bodies. They provide us with a long-lived record of planet formation in extrasolar planetary systems. Their large surface area makes these disks detectable through infrared thermal emission or optical scattered light, providing insights into the nature of unseen minor-body populations and the underlying planetary architecture. Their resemblance to the Solar System (exo-Asteroid and exo-Kuiper-belt analogs) lets us study them to constrain our models of how our system formed and evolved. In my talk, I will discuss recent work on debris disks with a focus on (1) the detection and characterization of exo-Asteroid belts and how we use the two-belt systems in nearby resolved debris disks as signposts for multiple low-mass planets, and (2) newly discovered variable systems that are the sites of large collisions or episodes of a high level of dynamical activity in the terrestrial planet building zone. I will conclude with a brief discussion of planned debris disk studies with JWST, and highlight some of the science that can be done with the Origins Space Telescope, one of the four large Mission Concept studies initiated by NASA for the 2020 Decadal Survey.

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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

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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

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Tracy Webb

McGill University

host: Caitlin Casey

Planet Formation: the Direct Approach

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Lisa Prato

Lowell Observatory

host: Fritz Benedict