Wine and Cheese Fall 2017

This page records the schedule, titles and abstracts of the JHU/STScI CAS Astrophysics Wine & Cheese Series in Fall 2017.

Wine and Cheese sessions with one talk will have a 50 minute talk with 10 minutes for questions. Sessions with two speakers will have two 25 minute talks, each with 5 minutes for questions.

September 11th

Lauren Corlies (JHU)

Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE): Connecting Simulations and Observations

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is host to a number of fundamental processes driving galaxy formation and evolution: gas accretion from the IGM, gas stripping from in-falling satellites, the ejection of gas by multiple feedback processes, and the recycling of gas by the disk. Yet its diffuse nature makes observations difficult and thus, the CGM is one of the least constrained aspects of hydrodynamical simulations. In this talk, I’ll discuss two ways we are trying to connect the simulated CGM to current and future observations. First, I’ll present observationally constrained emission predictions from a high-resolution cosmological simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy and demonstrate how this emission reflects the evolution of the CGM at late times and discuss the detection likelihoods for such emission. Second, I’ll present a novel implementation of a mesh refinement scheme wherein we achieve unprecedentedly high resolution in the CGM of a MW-like galaxy. I’ll highlight some preliminary results from these tests that indicate that resolution alone has a large impact on the physical structure and observational properties of this gas.

Ivan Padilla (JHU)

SPIDER: Searching for the echoes of inflation from atop the atmosphere

Balloon-borne platforms have long served as a shortcut to space-quality science and as pathfinder instruments for satellite missions. NASA's Long Duration Balloon platform allows for flights lasting roughly 20 days, carrying payloads weighing upwards of 6000 lbs. Spider is a balloon-borne microwave polarimeter that aims to take advantage of this platform to obtain very high sensitivity maps of the polarized cosmic microwave background, over a 10% patch of the sky and at 3 different frequencies -- 95, 150, and 285 GHz. The spatial and frequency coverage should allow for effective separation of foregrounds from the signal, potentially reaching an upper limit of r < 0.03.

Designed as a two-flight mission, Spider completed its first flight in January of 2015 after a 16 day voyage, suspended 36 km over the Antarctic continent. During the first flight, Spider observed a high Galactic latitude patch of the sky with over 2,000 polarization sensitive bolometers at 95 and 150 GHz. The second flight will replace some of the receivers with three high frequency 285 GHz channels containing 512 channels each. I will go over some preliminary results from the first flight, discuss some of the challenges involved, and motivate the need for a second flight. I will also give an update on the status of preparation for the second flight, which is scheduled for the end of 2018.

September 18th

David Neufeld (JHU)

What the Largest Atoms in the Galaxy Tell Us About the Density of Cosmic Rays

I'll discuss how the cosmic-ray ionization rate in diffuse molecular clouds can be inferred from observations of radio recombination lines emitted by atoms in high-lying "Rydberg" states. Our preliminary results are in good agreement with those obtained from observations of molecular ions such as OH+ and H3+.

Richard Conn Henry (JHU)

The Mental Universe
Forty-nine years ago I was hired (a PhD astronomer) by the JHU Physics department. I’d never understood physics from the classes I’d taken: physics did not seem to make much sense, especially, of course, quantum mechanics. So I decided I should teach physics myself, in the hope of understanding it at last. So, for about 35 years I taught Special Relativity, General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics. The result was fascinating, and disturbing: it was clear that the universe is not what we astronomers think it is. I also discovered, by reading Nature and Science every week for all those years, that this was not a secret! For example, in Science, 1995, 270, 1439, “Measurements are the Only Reality, Say Quantum Tests.” But, the scientific community did not teach that fact to the young! What was going on? I decided, twelve years ago, to put the matter to the test: my wife and I were skiing in Colorado and in the evenings, I composed an essay entitled “The mental Universe,” and submitted it to Nature. Shortly after we returned to Baltimore, I received a phone call from England and was told that my essay “needed to be shortened by about a factor of two” before it could appear. I swallowed hard, shortened it, and it duly appeared (436, 29, 2005). I waited for blowback, but that never came. I will try to explain why this is not a joke, but is, well, real.

September 25th

TBD (TBD)

STScI Detector Workshop
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October 2nd

TBD (TBD)

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October 9th

TBD (TBD)

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October 16th

TBD (TBD)

Observing Protoplanetary and Debris Disks with JWST
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October 23rd

TBD (TBD)

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October 30th

TBD (TBD)

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November 6th

TBD (TBD)

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November 13th

TBD (TBD)

Planning Solar System Observations with JWST
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November 27th

TBD (TBD)

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December 5th

TBD (TBD)

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