Saturday: Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - How We Know That Dark Matter Exists
You’re invited to the next edition of Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy, in which Dr. Knop will explain how we know that dark matter exists.
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: Modern cosmology tells us that the majority of the Universe is made up of stuff whose nature is largely unknown to us. Two thirds of it is Dark Energy; most of the rest is Dark Matter, the subject of this talk. Dark Matter interacts with normal matter through gravity, but otherwise it interacts hardly at all. Yet, we have very high confidence that this mysterious Dark Matter really does exist. Because it doesn’t interact with light, we haven’t seen it glowing, nor have we observed it absorbing background light as we’ve seen with dust clouds. All of the evidence we have for Dark Matter comes from its gravitational interaction with other matter, and with light. Yet, this evidence is extremely compelling. In this talk, I will attempt to convince you that there is no reasonable doubt that Dark Matter exists.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web7.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2643613&date=1241247600
Saturday: Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - “Neptune and Vulcan: Dark Matter in the Solar System”
The next installment in the popular astronomy talks series Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy is on Saturday, and you’re invited! Here are the details:
Talk Title: Neptune and Vulcan: Dark Matter in the Solar System
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: The cosmological Dark Matter is one example of a more general thing that we might call “dark matter” with lowercase letters— that is, something that has not been observed directly, but whose existence we infer because of its gravitational effects. In the 19th century, there was dark matter in the Solar System: Uranus was showing deviations in its orbit that could not be explained by the action of the Sun and the other known planets. That led to the discovery of Neptune. Similarly, deviations in the orbit of Mercury led to the postulated planet Vulcan inside Mercury’s orbit. However, it turned out that Vulcan didn’t exist at all, and that the answer to the question of Mercury’s orbit was a modification of our theory of gravity.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web2.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2595217&date=1240038000
Public Seminar on Saturday: The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe
You’re invited to the next installment of the public seminar series Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy!
Title: The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe
Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: In 1998, two teams of astronomers observing supernovae discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. The speaker, Dr. Knop, was on one of the two teams, working with Saul Perlmutter. In this talk, I will describe just how it is that you can measure the expansion history of the Universe by observing distant exploding stars, and what surprising things we saw in our results that indicated to us that the expansion of the Universe was in fact accelerating. At the end, I’ll briefly mention some things about “dark energy,” the mysterious substance that is causing this surprising universal acceleration.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web11.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2538906&date=1238828400
MICA Popular Talk - Black Holes, Bright Lights: Quasars as Probes of the Early Universe
Speaker: George Djorgovski (RL) / Curious George (SL)
Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: Quasars are the most powerful sources in the universe, believed to be powered by accretion of matter onto supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies. Their formation and evolution likely traced the formation of galaxies themselves. Due to their brightness, they can be seen at very large distances, reaching to the times when the universe was less than a billion years old. They can be used to illuminate the early stages of evolution of galaxies, large scale structure, and the intergalactic medium.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/ Feel free to ask questions or make comments.
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web3.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2488345&date=1237618800
Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - “A Snapshot of the Early Universe”
You’re invited to the next installment of Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy!
Title: A Snapshot of the Early Universe: The Cosmic Microwave Background
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: If you look between all of the stars and all of the galaxies, and you get outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, and even outside the glow of the gas and dust in our own galaxy, you would see that everywhere the sky glows at a temperature of about 3 degrees above absolute zero. This is the cosmic microwave background, and it represents a snapshot of the aftermath of the Big Bang. In this talk, I’ll summarize how it was discovered, I’ll describe how it came to be a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, and I’ll tell you some of the very important things we’ve learned about our Universe from studying it.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web12.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2434573&date=1236412800
MICA Opens New StellaNova Sim Jan 30th-31st
This coming Friday and Saturday, MICA, the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics, will be hosting events for the grand opening of their new sim, StellaNova.
Check out the MICA website for all the details!
- A scene in the new MICA sim, StellaNova
All times are Pacific Time.
Friday, Jan. 30: Day One of the Grand Opening of the new MICA sim (StellaNova) . 1:30 - 1:45 pm: Opening remarks, MICA building dedication [MICA building]. SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/24/108/32 . 1:45 - 2:00 pm: Explore around StellaNova. SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/129/129/32 . 2:00 - 3:00 pm: Open discussion: Science in Virtual Worlds [Small amphitheater]. SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/76/200/32 . 3:00 - 3:30 pm: New initiatives in OpenSim N-body work [MICA seminar room]. SLURL: <a href=”http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/27/114/21“>http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/27/114/21
- StellaNova beach house and eagle - Image by Korii Tiger
Saturday, Jan. 31: Day Two of the Grand Opening of the new MICA sim (StellaNova) . 10:00 - 11:00 am: Inaugural Popular Lecture - Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - “Colliding Galaxies in a Virtual Universe” [Large amphitheater]. SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/206/211/32 . 11:00 - 12 noon: Informal discussion: Astronomy and SL [MICA Clubhouse]. SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/127/43/22 . Please join us in celebrating and learning! The inworld SL group is the open-membership MICA - VW Astrophysics. Feel free to join and keep up with future events. Check out our wiki at http://mica-vw.org for events and slides/records of past talks to learn more! See you at the opening of StellaNova!
Gravitational Lensing Talk on Saturday
This coming Saturday, December 20, Dr. Knop will give a talk titled “Nature’s Telescope, Nature’s Scale: Gravitational Lensing”. Here are the details of the event:
Date: Saturday, December 20, 2008
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Abstract: The presence of mass creates gravity. If something else is flying by a massive object, its gravity will bend the path of that object. This is why planets orbit the Sun; their path is continually bent around the Sun into a circle. It turns out that even the path of light is bent as it goes near a massive object; this effect is known as gravitational lensing. We can see examples in astronomy where background galaxies are magnified, distoried, and even given multiple images by the gravitational lensing of intervening galaxies. Even very mild gravitational lensing can be used to measure the mass of the intervening galaxies. Finally, gravitational lensing has been used to determine that the dark matter in our galaxy cannot be made up entirely of small massive objects, such as very dim stars or brown dwarfs.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. In the Galaxy Dome floating above the sim named ‘Spaceport Bravo’ SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/117/66/278 This talk is part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web3.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2169864&date=1229760000
Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - Direct Imaging of Extrasolar Planets
You’re invited to the next installment of Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy, a popular series of talks by Dr. Rob Knop:
Title: “Direct Imaging of Extrasolar Planets”
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2008
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
All are welcome. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. In the Galaxy Dome floating above the sim named ‘Spaceport Bravo’ SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/117/66/278
Artist’s Impression of Gliese 581 c (Source: Hervé Piraud, licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License) This talk is part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/ Link on the Official SL Events calendar.
Seminar: “Galaxies in Collision”
You’re invited to a free public astronomy seminar in Second Life. Here are the details:
Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy Title: “Galaxies in Collision”
Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Abstract: Stars within a galaxy like our own almost never collide with each other. Galaxies themselves, however, run into each other all the time. What’s more, when the Universe was younger and smaller, they ran into each other more often. In this talk, I’ll give an overview of the sorts of things we see observationally when galaxies run into each other, causing not only the beautiful cosmic collisions that we’ve seen images of, but also triggering huge bursts of star formation and even tremendous activity at the nucleus of those galaxies. All are welcome. Feel free to ask questions or make comments.
In the Galaxy Dome floating above the sim named ‘Spaceport Bravo’ SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/117/66/278
This talk is part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA). For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web22.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=1994318&date=1224918000
We Are Starstuff: the Cosmic Origins of the Chemical Elements
