Past Events

2020

Space Week 2020: Tony Ricco (NASA/Ames)

12:00–1:00 pm Webinar

Tony Ricco, NASA/Ames, “Life in Space: Microfluidic Systems Enable the Study of Terrestrial Microbes in Space and the Search for Life on the Solar System’s Icy Worlds”

Dec 8

Space Week 2020: Paulo Lozano (MIT)

12:00–1:00 pm Webinar

Paulo Lozano, MIT, “Fundamentals and Applications of Spacecraft Propulsion Based on Electrospray Ion Beam Sources”

Dec 7

College Reading Period

Through December 7, 2020

Dec 5

Open Group Seminar: Digvijay (Jay) Wadekar (New York University)

1:30–2:30 pm Zoom room

Digvijay (Jay) Wadekar, New York University, “Analytic calculation of the power spectrum covariance: speedup by four orders of magnitude”

Dec 3

KICP Seminar: Weishuang Linda Xu (Harvard)

12:00–1:00 pm Zoom Room

Weishuang Linda Xu, Harvard, “Thermal Dark Sectors in the Early and Late Universe”

Dec 3

A&A Colloquium: Eric Agol (University of Washington)

3:30–4:30 pm Zoom - for link, please contact, Laticia Rebeles, lrebeles@oddjob.uchicago.edu

“Quantifying the nature of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system”

Seven Earth-sized planets have been found to transit the
Jupiter-sized star TRAPPIST-1, located forty light years from
our Solar System.  The planets appear to form a chain of orbital
resonances, attributed to orbital migration.  Dynamical interactions
amongst the planets lead to transit-timing variations which we
measured with high precision using the Spitzer, Kepler, Hubble,
and ground-based telescopes over four years.  Analysis of these
data yield a comprehensive picture of the architecture of the orbits
and interiors of these planets.  The planets’ orbits are nearly circular
and coplanar, as expected from disk migration models.  Their densities
show a pattern consistent with a single interior composition,
which is offset from the rocky planets in our Solar System.
I will present these and other results based on our transit-timing
and photodynamic analysis of this benchmark planetary system,
and discuss prospects for study of this system with the James
Webb Space Telescope.

Dec 2

A&A Colloquium: Gordan Krnjaic (Fermilab)

3:30–4:30 pm Zoom

From ALPs to WIMPZILLAS: Discovering Dark Matter In Novel Laboratories

Although the astrophysical evidence for the existence of dark matter is overwhelming, its microscopic properties remain elusive, despite decades of dedicated searches for the dominant weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) paradigm. In light of this experimental situation, there has recently been a surge of activity to broaden the search program by utilizing previously overlooked strategies, which leverage novel terrestrial and cosmic laboratories to probe dark matter beyond the WIMP framework. I will survey some of these ideas and present a road map towards greatly expanding our converge of well-motivated dark matter models that sample the full range of viable candidate masses.

Nov 25

Study Week/Thanksgiving Break

Through November 27, 2020

Nov 23

Graduate Admissions Information Session

11:00 am–4:30 pm Online

The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics invites you to join us in a virtual workshop regarding the graduate admissions process. Registration Deadline: November 16, 2020.

Nov 20

Troubleshoot: Walking Through the Steps to Success

7:00–8:00 pm Zoom Room

Please join us tonight for the pilot program of our new Art/Science Connection outreach initiative: a conversation between UChicago scientists and the Arts+Public Life Artists-in-Residence. Hosted by KICP Director Rocky Kolb.

Nov 18