TIME : Friday, 15th February 2008 at 3:00 pm
PLACE : CSO Conference Room
SPEAKER : Dr. Attila Kovacs (Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy)
TITLE : Extragalactic
Science with APEX and SHARCII/CSO
ABSTRACT:
I will provide a brief overview of the extragalactic science projects
currently under
way at the APEX telescope in Chile, with special focus on the early
extragalactic
results from the new 295-pixel bolometer camera LABOCA. In
the second part,
for a more local flavor, I will present the results from a follow-up
study of submillimeter
galaxies with the SHARCII camera at the CSO. The SHARCII data allows
the first
firm constraints of the dust-temperatures and bolometric luminosities
for this population
of high-z galaxies. They also allow the testing of the radio to
far-infrared correlation
at the higher redshifts.
TIME : Monday, 28th April 2008 at 11:00 am
PLACE : CSO Conference Room
SPEAKER : Dr. Andrew Blain (California Institute of Technology)
TITLE : Evolution and
Astrophysics of Distant Ultraluminous Galaxies
ABSTRACT:
The most luminous high-redshift galaxies are dominated by energy
production at far-infrared wavelengths. Selected with poor
angular
resolution using ground-based submillimeter and space-borne far-
infrared telescopes, they are a crucial component of our
understanding
of galaxy formation. However, understanding their properties
requires
arduous follow-up observations from radio to X-ray. I will
describe
progress with understanding the evolution and astrophysics of
these
galaxies, which trace the top end of the galaxy luminosity
function,
and highlight some forthcoming opportunities using NASA's WISE,
and
ALMA.
TIME : Friday, 18th July 2008 at 3:00 pm
PLACE : CSO Conference Room
SPEAKER : Dr. Darek Lis (California Institute of Technology)
TITLE : Hydrogen
Isocyanide in the ISM and Comets
ABSTRACT:
I discuss the current understanding of the origin of hydrogen
isocyanide in the interstellar medium and comets. HNC, first detected
in comet Hyakutake by means of submillimeter spectroscopy, has now
been observed in a dozen moderately bright comets, not including the
very active comets Hale-Bopp and McNaught. The existing data suggest
that HNC production has to be efficient in the inner coma, just as the
material leaves the nucleus. The process has to be temperature
dependent to explain the observed variation in the HNC/HCN abundance
ratio with the heliocentric distance. Thermal degradation of
macromolecules or polymers produced from ammonia and carbon compounds,
such as acetylene, methane, or ethane appears to be a process
consistent with the existing observational data, including the very
low HNC/HCN ratio measured recently in comet 73P/Schwassmann-
Wachmann 3.
last updated on 2008/06/10 by hs