[bioundgrd] Fwd: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research: IAP Activities January 28-31

[Janice Chang]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Debbie Meinbresse <meinbres at mit.edu<mailto:meinbres at mit.edu>>
Subject: please share with your undergrad and grad students -- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research: IAP Activities January 28-31
Date: January 24, 2019 at 7:29:59 PM EST
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI)
IAP 2019 Activities: January 28-31
Check out MKI’s upcoming IAP activities.  Please note: If you are interested in taking a tour of the Operations Control Center for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the sign-up deadline is January 28 @ 12noon.

Monday, January 28
How Stars are Born
Dr. Moritz Guenther, 2:30 – 3:00pm in 37-252

While our Sun is almost 5 billion years old, stars still form in the the dark clouds of our Milky Way. When we observe those regions we can learn how star and planet formation works, so that we also understand the formation of our own solar system and the Earth better. I will describe how we observe those regions that are hidden to the naked eye using infrared and X-ray telescopes to obtain stunning images of stellar nurseries. Zooming in on just a few of the young stars, I show how a gas cloud collapses to form a hot gas core that is the birth place of another sun and possibly a few planets. This is the stage of star formation where I concentrate my own research and I will describe how professional astronomers gain access to space telescopes, share my experiences of how to use the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for my observations of young stars and I will show an example of how we process the observations to extract scientific conclusions. Star formation is a very active area of research with many open questions to solve and certainly one of the areas in astronomy that delivers extremely beautiful images of the Milky Way that surrounds us.

Modern Cyclopses – The Era of Giant Telescopes
Dr. Gabor Furesz, 3:00 – 3:30pm in 37-252

While astronomical observations have been carried out for thousands of years it is only the past four centuries when our naked eyes have been aided by telescopes. With today’s ‘giant eyes’ we can peer really deep into the night sky, literally reaching the edge of the (observable) Universe. But to get there we have to build larger and larger, ever more sensitive, better telescopes and instruments. It has been really just the past few decades when progress was exponential, just like in other fields: thanks to computers, highly sensitive digital detectors and other modern design and manufacturing technologies. But progress in astronomical instrumentation is also influenced by commercialization, the consumer market, as well as history and politics – as these extremely large and complex scientific machines require collaboration and unique technology developments that point beyond a single nation, even the U.S. One could rightfully ask: do we really need these even larger giant telescopes, if they are so expensive and we already can see to the edge of the Universe? I will argue for the “yes” answer by showing a few very exciting science cases, like the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets and understanding the chemical evolution of the Universe. To investigate these questions it is not enough to simply detect the light but also to analyze it in detail. While spectroscopy is a well established and great method to do so, it requires a lot of photons to be captured – which hopefully will be delivered by the next generation of giant light buckets.

Exoplanet Science in the era of TESS
Dr. Jenn Burt, 3:30-4:00pm in 37-252

The beginning of the TESS spacecraft’s science mission in mid 2018 promises the detection of thousands of exoplanets orbiting bright, nearby stars. These planets will provide astronomers with our best ever opportunity to mount extensive follow up observation efforts and try to understand the composition, distribution and evolution of planets in our galaxy. This talk will describe the anticipated TESS planet yield, its impact on the exoplanet field, and some of the follow up methods that astronomers will use to probe the composition of the planets’ rocky cores and/or gaseous outer atmospheres.

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Tuesday, January 29
Artificial Intelligence in Science

Dr. Victor Pankratius, 1:00-1:30pm in 37-252
How can Artificial Intelligence help advance science? This presentation will outline new avenues for Computer-Aided Discovery in astronomy and geoscience.


Roman warships in Experiment: Reconstruction and Sailing Tests

Dr. Moritz Gunther, 1:30 – 2:30pm in 37-252
Warning: This talk is non-astronomical and contains actual videos and possibly sound. After the climax of its power internal struggle weakened the military position of the Roman Empire. A series of attacks in the 2nd and 3rd century AD forced an adjustment of the military strategy in central Europe. Instead of further expansion, the borders of the empire were increasingly fortified. In Germany this lead to the construction of an impressive naval fleet on the rivers Rhine and Danube. Several of the boats have been excavated. Our team has attempted a reconstruction of two types of vessel, the “navis lusoria” and the “Oberstimm” with a level of detail down to the hand-smithened nails with the correct metallurgy. A series of three working boats have been built in original size. I will show pictures of the reconstruction phase, but concentrate on the on-the-water tests we have performed with different teams to access the speed, maneuverability and sailing performance of these boats. Particularly in sailing the possibilities far exceeded the expectations. This result indicates a much larger operating radius of these vessels than previously estimated and thus a much higher flexibility of the river defense scheme which the empire relied on to keep the barbarians at bay. See, e.g.: this movie<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nV16slhP_s>


The Future of X-ray Polarimetry in Astronomy

Dr. Herman Marshall, 2:30-3:30pm in 37-252
I will present several projects to measure the X-ray polarizations of astronomical sources over the next 5-10 years. Previous observations were obtained in the 1970s for bright Galactic sources such as X-ray binaries and the Crab Nebula using a Bragg reflection from graphite crystals, limiting the measurements to 2.6 and 5.2 keV. Recently, a few detections have been reported using Compton scattering at hard X-rays. A newly approved NASA mission is the Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer (IXPE). It would operate in the 2-8 keV range and is expected to launch in late 2020. It has an imaging capability, with a resolution of about a half arc-minute, and should detect X-ray polarizations as low as 1-5 percent for a dozen or more active galaxies, supernova remnants, neutron stars, and X-ray binaries during a mission lifetime of a few years. I will describe the instrument and a few of the science goals. I will also describe a design for a sounding rocket based polarimeter to work in the 0.2-0.6 keV band. The method uses gratings developed at MIT and multilayer coated mirrors. Potential targets include active galaxies, isolated neutron stars, and nearby black hole binaries in outburst. The configuration is extensible to orbital use, possibly to be combined with other instruments to provide a bandpass from 0.2 to 50 keV.


Tour of the X-ray Polarimetry Lab — please note tour limit and prerequisite below

Dr. Alan Garner, 3:45 – 4:45pm tour departs from 37-252
Tour of MIT’s X-ray Polarimetry Lab, where new X-ray instrumentation is currently being developed.
Please Note:
20 people max for tour. Advance sign-up required starting at 2:25pm in 37-252 immediately before Dr. Marshall’s talk. Attendance of talk is required for tour of the Lab. Tour will leave from 37-252 at 3:30pm. Tour attendees will walk as a group to NE83.


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Wednesday, January 30

Formation of Gold and other heavy elements via the R(apid neutron capture)-process

Dr. Rana Ezzeddine, 1:30-2:00pm in NW22 interaction area
Most chemical elements up to Iron are formed in the core of the stars via nucleosynthesis fusion processes of lighter elements into heavier ones. Elements heavier than iron, however, require neutron-capture processes to take place. I will talk about our current understanding of the formation of the heaviest elements, such as Gold and Uranium, via the (r)apid neutron-capture process in stars, especially within the latest exciting and ground-breaking multi-wavelength LIGO discovery of the GW170817 neutron star merger gravitational waves event.

An Explanation of the Science Behind LIGO

Dr. Evan Hall and Mr. Benjamin Lane, 2:00-3:00pm in NW22 interaction area

How can we build a machine that can detect dead stars colliding with each other a billion light-years away? Come hear about the physics that goes into building the LIGO gravitational wave observatories, and the astrophysics behind recent detections. Black holes, neutron stars, high-power lasers, and quantum optics!

Tour of the LIGO Lab

Come see how the quantum optics research here at MIT will improve detections of binary neutron stars and black holes in LIGO to be more often and more informative.

Attendees will be divided into two groups of 10. Group A will hear talk by Dr. Evan Hall, while the Group B starts with the lab tour led by Mr. Benjamin Lane. Group A will take the lab tour following the talk, while Group B will get the talk after the lab tour. Talk and tour 30 minutes each.


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Thursday, January 31

Solar Observing

Dr. Duane Lee, Dr. Michael Person, and MIT Astrogazers, 12:00noon-2:00pm W20 MIT Student Center (upper plaza area) Weather Permitting!
Join us for daytime stargazing! We will have solar telescopes set up so you can safely observe our closest star, the Sun. Swing on by for a quick look, and feel free to stay and chat with MIT astronomers.
Sponsored by Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Wallace Astrophysics Observatory. Special thanks to MIT Astrogazers for their assistance!

Heavier than the Sun, Smaller than a City: The Neutron Star
Dr. Paul Hemphill, 1:30-2:00pm in 37-252
Neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the known Universe. More massive than the Sun, but just a few miles across, they have some of the highest densities, strongest magnetic fields, and highest temperatures of any celestial objects. In this talk I will give an overview of the origins and properties of the various types of neutron stars that we observe, as well as how we can detect them and their usefulness for astrophysics as a whole.

Exploring the Universe from Near to Far with the Chandra X-ray Observatory
Dr. Norbert Schulz, 2:00-2:30pm in 37-252
In the summer of 1999, NASA launched the third of its great observatories–the Chandra X-ray telescope. Like the Hubble Space telescope which preceded it, Chandra is designed to have an unprecedented ability to create images and spectra of astrophysical objects, except working with high energy X-rays instead of optical light. This means that Chandra views some of the universe’s most exotic and energetic phenomena: supernovae, neutron stars, black holes, jets traveling at nearly the speed of light emanating from near the center of clusters of galaxies. In this talk, we’ll take a tour of the discoveries made by the Chandra X-ray telescope, starting with studies of our own solar system, moving outward to nearby stars, to the center of our own Galaxy where a black hole 40 millions times the mass of our Sun lurks, to distant clusters of Galaxies where the most massive black holes, billions of times the mass of our Sun, reside.

Tour of Operations Control Center for Chandra X-ray Observatory
Tour departs 37-252 shortly after 2:30pm. Walk as a group to NE83.

  *   Tour signup deadline: Monday, Jan 28 @ 12noon.
  *   Email meinbres at mit.edu<mailto:meinbres at mit.edu> your first & last name (as it appears on your ID) & country of your citizenship. Tour attendance will be confirmed by end of day Jan 29.
  *   The tour is limited to the first 20 people who sign up by Jan 28 @ noon. No enrollment limit for talks preceding tour.

Please email me if you have questions about any of our IAP activities.

Debbie Meinbresse | Assistant to the Director
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
77 Massachusetts Avenue, 37-241 Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: (617) 253-1456 | Fax: (617) 253-3111 | meinbres at mit.edu<mailto:meinbres at mit.edu>






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