Neil Gehrels, an adjunct professor of astronomy and astrophysics at both the University of Maryland and at Penn State University, and chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will present the Russell Marker Lectures in Astronomy and Astrophysics on March 21 and 22, at the Penn State University Park campus.
The lecture series includes a presentation intended for a general audience, "Black Holes: From Einstein to Gamma Ray Bursts," which will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21, in 102 Thomas Building. In the lecture, Gehrels will describe Einstein's theory of general relativity, published in 1916. Gehrels will explain how Einstein's equations predicted that space-time is warped by mass in the universe. Gehrels also will discuss how X-ray telescopes have found strong evidence that black holes exist and are important components of the cosmos. In addition to the public lecture, Gehrels will give two specialized lectures on March 21 and 22. The Marker Lectures are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science. (more)
Ronald L. Gilliland, an adjunct professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, has been honored with the Beatrice M. Tinsley Award from the American Astronomical Society. The Tinsley Prize recognizes outstanding, exceptionally creative, and innovative research contributions to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Gilliland is being honored for his innovative work on the study of ultra-high signal-to-noise observations related to time-domain photometry -- a technique of measuring an astronomical object's changes in electromagnetic radiation over time. (more)
The first signs of spring mark the return to downtown State College of Research Unplugged, a non-traditional lecture series where experts from varying fields lead conversations with community members. All six Research Unplugged talks will be held Wednesdays from noon to 1 p.m., at the Penn State Downtown Theatre on Allen Street. On March 23, join sociology professor Sam Richards and colleague Danna Jayne Seballos of the "World in Conversation Project" to find out "Why Race Still Matters: Creating Conversations in 21st Century Classrooms." (more)
A new report, prepared for the National Academy of Sciences by the National Research Council, ranked the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) as the top U.S. priority for the next large ground-based astronomical facility. "The LSST is one of the most ambitious ground-based astronomical projects ever undertaken," said Larry Ramsey, head of Penn State's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and a member of the LSST Board of Directors. "It promises to provide fundamental advances in many fields of astrophysics, from the identification of potential 'killer asteroids' to the global properties of the universe." The 8.4-meter LSST telescope, to be placed on a mountain in northern Chile, will be equipped with the world's largest digital camera -- 3.2 billion pixels -- to construct a color "movie" of the entire visible sky for studying changes in movement or brightness. (more)
A free public presentation by astronomer John Johnson, an assistant professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, will be given at 8 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, in room 101 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. His talk on the study of planets in orbit around other stars is titled "Other Worlds." For more information, visit http://www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2010-news/AstronomyLecture8-2010. (more)
A public astronomy lecture by the eminent cosmologist Carlos S. Frenk, who is the Ogden professor of fundamental physics and director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, will be given on at 6 p.m. on June 6, in room 100 of the Thomas Building on Penn State's University Park campus. His talk on the origin and nature of structures in the universe is titled "Everything from Nothing: The Great Cosmic Gamble." (more)
Two Penn State faculty members are among the 229 leaders in the sciences, the humanities and the arts, business, public affairs and the nonprofit sector who have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Richard B. Alley, Evan Pugh professor of geosciences, and Peter Meszaros, director of the Center for Particle Astrophysics and Eberly chair of astronomy and astrophysics, and professor of physics, are included in the 2010 class. (more)
Two brown dwarf-sized objects orbiting a giant old star show that planets may assemble around stars more quickly and efficiently than anyone thought possible, according to an international team of astronomers. "We have found two brown dwarf-sized masses around an ordinary star, which is very rare," said Alex Wolszczan, Evan Pugh professor of astronomy and astrophysics, Penn State and lead scientist on the project. (more)
A physics experiment using a super-fast explosion in a galaxy 7.3 billion light-years away has given scientists rare experimental evidence about the fundamental structure of space and time. The experiment was performed by a team that includes astrophysicists at Penn State University, who used NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope to study particles from the explosion moving at nearly the speed of light. The experiment confirmed aspects of Einstein's theories of gravity, which unite space and time in the concept of space-time. The team's research is published in the current online edition of the journal Nature and will be published at a later date in the print edition. (more)
Tantalizing insights into the nature of the most distant object ever observed in the universe have been achieved by an international research team whose leaders include Derek Fox, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State. The team used the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope to observe the distant object -- a gigantic stellar explosion known as a gamma ray burst (GRB). A scientific report of the team's findings has been submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters. (more)
