Lectures @ Dyer – Videos
Our Meet the Astronomer series features Vanderbilt experts discussing areas of research and topics of general interest. The talks are generally geared for middle school students through adults. Some are also on our YouTube playlist. LINK HERE.
Visit our YouTube Playlist for past and upcoming special events like Star Parties. LINK HERE.
April 2023 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. David Weintraub
Dr. Weintraub discusses the essays written by successful women astronomers for the book he co-edited, “The Sky is for Everyone.” Before 1900, a woman who wanted to study the stars had to have a father, brother, or husband to provide entry. Well into the 20th century, the intellectual skills of women astronomers were often still not enough to enable them to pry open the doors of opportunity. Today, women are closer to “holding up half the sky” than ever before, though probably with some territory still to be claimed. Weintraub will describe his work in bringing together these stories and mention some of the highlights readers can look for in the book. Hear about Indian astronomer Poonam Chandra, who was taught that the point of educating a girl was to ensure she was obedient so that her future in-laws would like her; in 2021, she was named the winner of the Modali award by the Astronomical Society of India for astronomical work done in India over the previous decade. And hear about others like Jocelyn Bell Burnell, France Cordova, and Meg Urry, who helped break the glass ceiling in astronomy and who are now working to level the playing field.
May 2021 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
Twice a year, denizens of Earth are afforded the opportunity to witness a lunar eclipse, an event in which our only natural satellite glides through the shadow of our planet. So why is it that we only see an eclipse every now and then, why does the Moon appear red, and do all lunar eclipses look alike? Watch this talk posted on YouTube, where Dr. Billy Teets answers these questions and more during the May virtual Meet the Astronomer lecture. This talk is geared to the general public, ages 10 to adult. And if you enjoy this talk and want to soak more from past Meet the Astronomer evenings, be sure to check out Dyer Observatory’s YouTube playlist!
April 2021 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Laura Vega
Laura Vega, a recent PhD graduate of Vanderbilt, discusses how data spanning more than a century have provided clues to what is going on in the U Monocerotis’s (U Mon) stellar system. She also talks a little about her own interest in astronomy and covers fascinating information about stars.
NASA is very excited about her research and published an article with video here: HERE
March 2021 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
NASA’s Voyager missions were launched over four decades ago and continue to claim the title of humanity’s farthest explorers. Embarking on a Grand Tour of the solar system in the late 1970s, the two spacecraft would not only make numerous ground-breaking discoveries as they visited the gas and ice giants, but they would also give us some of our first (and in some cases only) up-close views of our distant solar system neighbors.
The missions continue to inform us about the outer reaches of the solar system more than 10 billion miles from Earth, for they continue to radio home to this day. In this talk, Dyer Observatory’s director, Dr. Billy Teets, will discuss the history of the Voyager missions including their engineering, major discoveries, and what they are up to today.
February 2021 “Meeet the Astronomer” – Dr. Stephen Taylor
In this talk, Dr. Taylor, Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, discusses how gravitational waves wash over our galaxy, distorting the space-time between the pulsars and Earth, and affecting the timing regularity of radio pulses measured from these pulsars. He expands the talk with the origins of gravitational waves, various ongoing missions to detect them, and the new frontier this promises for probing the darkest mysteries of the Universe.
January 2021 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Maria Charisi
In this talk, Dr. Maria Charisi describes the long journey to the first monumental discovery and exciting new findings from the first five years of gravitational wave observations. She also presents ongoing and future experiments that will detect gravitational waves from pairs of the most massive black holes in the universe, which are formed when galaxies collide.
Maria Charisi is a black-hole astrophysicist at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observations of supermassive black hole pairs. Maria got her BSc in physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and her PhD in astronomy from Columbia University. Subsequently, she was a post-doctoral fellow of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves at Caltech and in October she joined Vanderbilt with a post-doctoral fellowship from the Vanderbilt Initiative for Data-intensive Astrophysics.
December 2020 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. David Weintraub
Dr. David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University, discusses a topic that often pops up during the winter holidays: Can astronomy explain the Star of Bethlehem? Might it have been a star, a comet, or a bright conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, like the one we witnessed on December 21, 2020?
He references the Gospel of Matthew, some well-established historical reference points, and our understanding of astronomy and astrology as they were practiced 2,000 years ago to propose a fascinating explanation of this renowned phenomenon.
November 2020 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
How to buy the right telescope. Dyer Observatory’s own Dr. Billy Teets reviews many of the options to consider when selecting a personal telescope. Binoculars and accessories are also considered.
September 2020 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Erika Grundstrom
Vanderbilt’s Dr. Erika Grundstrom discusses fun and rewarding Community Science (Citizen Science) opportunities for students and adults of all ages. Interests from galaxies to bird watching are included. Different levels of expertise and involvement will be discussed for each opportunity. We invite everyone to get involved!
November 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Adam Szewciw
In a 2016 interview, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said he thinks there is a “one in billions” chance that we are not living in a computer simulation. Current simulations of stars, galaxies, and the Universe are ever-increasing in their realism, but how far are we from truly being able to simulate a universe as detailed as our own? In this talk, Adam discusses the past, present, and (possible) future of simulations in astronomy.
October 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Natasha McMann
Tuning Into Einstein’s Universe: Natasha McMann explains how NANOGrav (North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves) is searching for gravitational waves using pulsars. This talk is geared to students 7th grade and up to adults of all ages and features audience participation questions and a video about how high schoolers can get involved in the research.
September 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has been in space for nearly six years now and has provided astronomers with an incredibly extensive catalog of data including the positions and magnitudes for both Milky Way objects and extra-galactic sources. This talk gives an overview of the Gaia mission including details of the observatory itself and how it functions, the goals of the mission, and some of the science results.
August 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Bob O’Dell
This is how we came to be – the Orion Nebula Star Formation Nursery. We all appreciate the beauty of the constellation Orion that dominates the winter sky. Not only beautiful, but it is also the home of the eponymous Orion Nebula, which is the closest region of our galaxy where hot stars are being created. This lavishly illustrated talk explains how stars are formed and what the study of the Orion Nebula has revealed about the process of creating stars, an activity that continues even today.
June 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Jonathan Bird
How are throwing a ball to your friend in the backyard and the discovery of — supermassive black holes, planets orbiting alien stars, the existence of dark matter, and the ultimate fate of our Universe — related? The answer is gravity! Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Jonathan Bird shows that gravity operates the same way on the playground and across the Universe and how this special fact has helped us figure out what the Cosmos is made of and what we hope to find out next.
May 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Paul Sutter
Dr. Paul Sutter, visiting scholar at the Ohio State University’s Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, describes his talk as: “I bet you’ve looked up at the night sky and started asking questions. Are we alone? What’s the meaning of it all? Where do we belong? Well, I’ve got some answers. You may not like them, but they’re answers.”
April 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Antonio Porras
There are many methods that astronomers use to find planets and assess the probability of them hosting life. During this talk, Antonio discusses different planet detection methods and the characteristics that make a planet habitable. The exploration of life will take us to famous artistic renditions of visionary vacation spots for those looking for adventures and unimaginable views.
March 2019 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dan Burger
March 21 happens to fall on a supermoon, the last of three supermoons in a row this year. Although the moon has varied in apparent size for millennia, supermoons seem to be a recent phenomenon: according to Google Trends, searches for “supermoon” largely began in 2011 and have been peaking about once a year ever since. So what are supermoons, where did they come from and how do they happen? I’ll answer these and unpack the special names that we’ve given to moons lately, such as the “super blood wolf moon” this past January and the “super blue blood moon” that preceded it. Note: “Far side of the moon” is the term for what is often labeled the “dark side of the moon.”
October 2018 “Meet the Astronomer” – Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann
For years, cosmologists have been trying to understand the origins of the universe, and how those origins developed into the large structures (i.e., clusters of galaxies) we see today. Over the past several decades, astronomers have developed a standard cosmological model to describe the initial conditions and subsequent evolution of the universe. To thoroughly test this model would require us to compare the spatial distribution of galaxies that we observe in the real universe with the distribution of galaxies predicted by our model in simulations. However, this poses a challenge because the way in which galaxies cluster is affected both by our cosmological model and by the physics of galaxy formation and evolution, which is not well understood. Vanderbilt astrophysics graduate student Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann discusses how we can address this challenge, and how studying galaxy clustering can allow us to learn about both the origins of the universe and the physics of galaxy formation.
September 2018 Special “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. David Weintraub
Vanderbilt’s Dr. David Weintraub discusses Mars exploration based on his new book Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go (Princeton University Press, 2018), which has been praised in reviews by TIME and the Science Christian Monitor. “David Weintraub tells why, of all the celestial bodies in our solar system, Mars has beckoned to us the most. He traces how our ideas about life on Mars have been refined by landers and rovers, terrestrial and Mars-orbiting telescopes, spectroscopy, and even a Martian meteorite. He explores how finding DNA-based life on the Red Planet could offer clues about our distant evolutionary past, and grapples with the profound moral and ethical questions confronting us as we prepare to introduce an unpredictable new life form—ourselves—into the Martian biosphere.
September 2018 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Ryan Oelkers
Technological advancements in the past two decades have led to a dramatic rise in the number of cost-effective, small-aperture telescopes (less than four inches in diameter) which monitor large portions of the sky on a nightly basis. Small telescopes have contributed to thousands of observations, of millions of stars, at regular intervals during the past decade. These observations have led to the discovery and understanding of many elementary questions in planetary and stellar astrophysics, but have created a new problem for astronomers: There is too much data to investigate! Dr. Ryan Oelkers of Vanderbilt University explores his experiences using small telescopes, our best efforts to explore our increasingly large datasets, and some of the more peculiar discoveries for the past two decades including: more than 5000 exoplanets, stars with evolving pulsations, binary stars with separations larger than a parsec, and some phenomena which have yet to be fully explained.
August 2018 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
Most of the information that we get about our universe, from the compositions and temperatures of stars to how fast galaxies are speeding away from us, comes from the light that these objects emit. How are astronomers able to determine these characteristics? During this talk, Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory’s own Dr. Billy Teets discusses the methodology of studying objects in our universe, touch on a few related topics, and include engaging live demonstrations.
May 2018 “Meet the Astronomer” – Antonio Porras
Millions of years after the Big Bang, the first stars and galaxies in our universe began to form. Many astrophysicists use telescopes to observe galaxies far away from our own. Others use simulations to make predictions based on what we expect to observe. During this presentation, Antonio discusses the revolutionary aspects of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in astronomy. He also explains how astronomers use telescopes and simulated universes to make accurate predictions in the field of galaxy formation in an effort to answer the question: Why is our Milky Way the way it is?
March 2018 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Mike Lund
The first planets around other stars were discovered just over 20 years ago. Since then, a trickle of new planets has erupted into a cascade, with almost 3000 planets now known around other stars. With the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT), Vanderbilt University has been active in the search for exoplanets that periodically transit in front of the stars they orbit, causing a tell-tale dimming of starlight. In the last few years, the KELT team has discovered planets in systems with some of the hottest stars known to host planets, and in turn, some of the hottest planets that have ever been discovered. These planets around relatively bright stars are now some of the best candidates for additional observations that will provide insight into what the atmospheres are like for planets beyond our Solar System.
November 2017 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
Winter often provides Tennesseans with some of the best sky-viewing conditions, and the winter sky obliges with a plethora of bright and interesting objects. This time of year also brings the holiday season, when we are often asked what telescope would be a great gift for the budding astronomer, especially if on a budget. This talk tackles both of these topics as we start out with a short discussion of telescope, viewing aids, and accessory recommendations. Then, some of the prime wintertime objects that one may view with a backyard telescope are discussed, including how to find the objects and a bit of background information pertaining to each.
August 2017 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
The total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, is the first total solar eclipse that will be visible across the United States in nearly a century. The average person will get a few chances in a lifetime to see a partial solar eclipse, but the opportunity to observe a total solar eclipse is, for many, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring sights of nature. This talk covers the basics of eclipse mechanics, how to safely observe a solar eclipse, what one could expect to see, and information specific to the August 21, 2017 event.
July 2017 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Billy Teets
The total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, is the first total solar eclipse that will be visible across the United States in nearly a century. The average person will get a few chances in a lifetime to see a partial solar eclipse, but the opportunity to observe a total solar eclipse is, for many, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring sights of nature. This talk covers the basics of eclipse mechanics, how to safely observe a solar eclipse, what one could expect to see, and information specific to the August 21, 2017 event.
May 2017 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Susan Stewart
As navigation methods have advanced, the practice of celestial navigation has largely been overshadowed by the use of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, aka GPS). However, celestial navigation is still quite relevant, as the rising threat of cyber warfare and the proliferation of cheap but powerful “jammers” have raised concerns that satellite navigational methods may be compromised. Because of this, celestial navigation remains tremendously important as a reliable independent system.
In this engaging talk, Dr. Stewart illustrates the increased need for precise stellar positions in the development of new technology. She also discusses the vulnerabilities of GNSS, and outlines both the principles and techniques of celestial navigation. The vital need for celestial navigation instruction, and Vanderbilt’s role in developing an online learning module for assisting in this effort, are also presented.
April 2017 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Bob Scherrer
Over the past three decades, cosmologists have made remarkable strides in understanding what the universe is made of, and it’s weirder than we could possibly have imagined. The observational evidence points to a universe that is roughly 5% ordinary matter, 25% dark matter, and 70% dark energy. The dark matter binds galaxies and clusters of galaxies together, while the dark energy exerts repulsive gravity, driving the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe. During this talk, Dr. Robert Scherrer, former Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy of Vanderbilt University discusses the evidence for dark matter and dark energy, the properties of each, and ongoing searches to discover the particle comprising the dark matter and to pin down the exact nature of dark energy.
March 2017 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Keivan Stassun
NASA’s recently completed Kepler mission has uncovered thousands of distant solar systems, the vast majority of which contain “gas giant” planets like our Jupiter and Saturn. Now astronomers are redirecting the quest toward the discovery of solar systems with planets most like our own terrestrial home. The NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, to be launched in 2018, will survey the brightest stars across the entire sky searching for “Earth 2.0,” those Earth-like planets orbiting relatively nearby stars and whose atmospheres could be probed for signs of habitability by the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. During this talk, Dr. Keivan Stassun, Vanderbilt University Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Fisk University, summarizes the promise of the TESS mission for detecting other worlds like our own and identifying other places in the universe where life just might be possible.
November 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Jedidah Isler
Blazars are supermassive, hyperactive black holes that reside at the centers of certain massive galaxies. These extremely active black holes interact with the environment around them to produce highly accelerated particle streams, called jets, from very nearby the black holes themselves. The process by which these particles are accelerated is still a very active area of research and Dr. Isler discusses the most recent findings while learning more about some of Nature’s most powerful particle accelerators.
September 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Jonathan Bird
Where did you come from? Many of the atoms that make up our bodies were created by stars billions of years ago. We are literally made of star dust. Whether or not you have heard this story, Dr. Bird’s talk provides new insight into how astrophysicists *know* this to be true. He discusses scientific results covering a variety of fields: cosmology and the shape of the Universe, gravity and general relativity, the structure of the nucleus and atomic physics, nuclear reactions in stars, and much more. By the end of the talk, you will be able to convince your friends and family one of the most beautiful lessons our exploration of the Universe has taught us: we are all made from stars.
August 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Bob O’Dell
Stars are forming continuously from giant clouds of gas molecules in our Milky Way Galaxy. Fortunately, one of these regions is nearby and has created the Orion Nebula, which is visible with even small binoculars. Thousands of stars have recently formed there, with the oldest about three million years old and the youngest about the same age as us, homo sapiens. The advent of the Hubble Space Telescope has allowed us for the first time to see the disk and jets that seem to be necessary to allow the formation of stars and that are the building blocks from which planetary systems may be forming. Dr. Bob O’Dell, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, explains one facet of how we came to be.
Note: Audio quality improves after first 30 seconds.
June 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Andreas Berlind
If you go to the NASA Science Astrophysics site, their explanation of dark matter begins with, “We are much more certain what dark matter is not, rather than what it is.” Dr. Andreas Berlind, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Astrophysics at Vanderbilt University, discuss what is actually known now about dark matter, the challenges of researching dark matter, and what we hope to learn from new and future discoveries.
May 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. David Weintraub
Over ten years ago NASA launched the New Horizons mission to Pluto. After traveling three billion miles through our solar system, New Horizons finally reached the Pluto system in July 2015 for a quick close encounter, taking as many images and measurements as possible while it flew past the frigid system. As New Horizons continues to move on towards the next target, it continues sending back data, and mission scientists continue to be awestruck by all of the new results that are still coming in on a daily basis. During this talk, Dr. David Weintraub, Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Program in the Communication of Science and Techonology at Vanderbilt University, discusses some of the science results that have come about thus far from the New Horizons data.
April 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Keivan Stassun
NASA’s recently completed Kepler mission has uncovered thousands of distant solar systems, the vast majority of which contain “gas giant” planets like our Jupiter and Saturn. Now astronomers are redirecting the quest toward the discovery of solar systems with planets most like our own terrestrial home. The NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, to be launched in 2017, will survey the brightest stars across the entire sky searching for “Earth 2.0,” those Earth-like planets orbiting relatively nearby stars and whose atmospheres could be probed for signs of habitability by the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Keivan Stassun, Vanderbilt University Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Fisk University, summarized the promise of the TESS mission for detecting other worlds like our own and identifying other places in the universe where life just might be possible.
March 2016 “Meet the Astronomer” – Dr. Kelly Holley-Bockelmann
In February 2016, a team of scientists from around the world announced that they had recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away, fulfilling the last prediction of Einstein’s 100-year-old General Theory of Relativity. The resulting gravitational waves, with power 50 times greater than the output of all the stars in the universe combined, were picked up by two highly-specialized giant antennae in Washington State and Louisiana known as LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). Dr. Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Associate Professor of Astrophysics at Vanderbilt University and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Fisk University, gave a lively presentation on gravitational waves for non-experts. In the talk, she discussed gravitational waves, how they were observed, played audio of what was actually detected, and then answered audience questions. In addition, Dr. Holley-Bockelmann also gave a TEDx talk on the subject, which can be viewed here.
The Thirty-Meter Telescope: What, Why, & How – Dr. Warren Skidmore
All about the Thirty Meter Telescope. On November 20, 2015, Dr. Warren Skidmore spoke about the construction, the scientific questions that drive the creation of a giant telescope, how the observatory is designed to support a range of scientific studies, and the engineering solutions that have been developed to overcome the problems of constructing a giant diffraction-limited observatory.
25th Anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope Launch: The Making of the Hubble Space Telescope – Dr. C. R. O’Dell
Dr. C. R. O’Dell of Vanderbilt University, who was not only instrumental in the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope but also some of the science that was carried out with it, gave two lectures in April of 2015 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the orbiting observatory’s launch. This lecture details the creation of the telescope from the early design concepts to the last servicing mission in 2009.
25th Anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope Launch: The Hubble’s Universe – Dr. C. R. O’Dell
Dr. C. R. O’Dell of Vanderbilt University, who was not only instrumental in the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope but also some of the science that was carried out with it, gave two lectures in April of 2015 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the orbiting observatory’s launch. This lecture describes just a few of the innumerable scientific discoveries made possible by the sharp vision of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Religion and Extra-Terrestrial Life – Dr. David Weintraub
Astronomers have now discovered thousands of planets in orbit around other stars. I will briefly describe those discoveries and predict the progress astronomers are likely to make in their studies of these planets over the next fifty years, as we begin to study these planets in detail, looking for evidence for the presence or absence of life. Then we will consider some of the consequences of those potential discoveries. Specifically, if astronomers develop convincing evidence that life exists beyond the Earth, how will that discovery impact terrestrial religions and our understanding of our place in the universe? Are any of humanities’ religions universal, or does a particular religion only make sense for earthlings?? Would Roman Catholicism or Judaism or Islam or Mormonism or Buddhism work or make sense on another planet? Could a Klingon be a Southern Baptist?
Searching for New Physics with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope – Dr. Peter Michelson
Dr. Peter Michelson, professor of Physics at Stanford University, California, and the Principal Investigator for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi spacecraft spoke about the search for dark matter and gravitational radiation through the use of neutron stars and pulsars in April 2014.
Hot on the Trail of Warm Planets Around Cool Stars – Dr. John Johnson
In 2013 Dr. John Johnson of the California Institute of Technology spoke about how just three years prior the prospect of finding temperate, rocky worlds around other stars was still the subject of science fiction until the extraordinary success of NASA’s Kepler mission changed all of that.
Catching Shadows: Kepler’s Quest for New Worlds – Dr. Natalie Batalha
For the 2012 Seyfert Lecture, Dr. Natalie Batahla, professor of physics and astronomy at San Jose State University and the Science Team Lead of NASA’s Kepler Mission, discussed NASA’s Kepler mission and some of the exciting results that have come out of its detection of over 2,000 possible planets as well as details of some of its confirmed exoplanet discoveries.
How Old is the Universe? – Dr. David Weintraub
The age of our universe poses a deceptively simple question, and its answer carries profound implications for science, religion, and philosophy. David Weintraub traces the centuries-old quest by astronomers to fathom the secrets of the nighttime sky. Describing the achievements of the visionaries whose discoveries collectively unveiled a fundamental mystery, he shows how many independent lines of inquiry and much painstakingly gathered evidence, when fitted together like pieces in a cosmic puzzle, led to the long-sought answer. Astronomers don’t believe the universe is 13.7 billion years old–they know it. You will too after reading this book. By focusing on one of the most crucial questions about the universe and challenging readers to understand the answer, Weintraub familiarizes readers with the ideas and phenomena at the heart of modern astronomy, including red giants and white dwarfs, cepheid variable stars and supernovae, clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing, dark matter, dark energy and the accelerating universe–and much more. Offering a unique historical approach to astronomy, How Old Is the Universe? sheds light on the inner workings of scientific inquiry and reveals how astronomers grapple with deep questions about the physical nature of our universe.
Endless Universe – Dr. Paul Steinhardt
Dr. Paul Steinhardt, the Albert Einstein Professor in Science and director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University, gave the 2011 Seyfert Lecture on the topic of the “endless universe,” which introduced an alternative to the standard Big Bang model and challenged conventional ideas about space, time and the evolution of the Universe. Known as the “cyclic universe,” this theory proposes that space and time had no beginning and that the Big Bang is actually an event that has repeated at regular intervals. Included is a discussion of how the cyclic theory may be distinguished from the standard Big Bang picture through experiments being mounted over the next few years.
Primordial Ice Reservoirs of the Solar System – Dr. David Jewitt
In March 2010, Dr. David Jewitt, professor of astronomy in the Earth, Planetary, and Space Science Department of UCLA and principal investigator of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, discussed our current knowledge (and lack thereof) of the primordial ice reservoirs of the solar system. He also emphasized links to the formation epoch and connections between the origin of the oceans and atmosphere and of the thermal evolution of asteroids and comets.
Patterns on the Pampa: Secrets of the Nazca Lines – Dr. Anthony Aveni
The Nazca Lines are an enigma. The strange geometric shapes and animals carved into the land were first spotted in the Peruvian desert south of Lima in the 1930s when commercial airlines began flying over them. No one has proof who built them or why. Since their discovery, the Nazca Lines have inspired fantastic explanations ranging from monuments honoring ancient gods to a landing strip for alien spacecraft to a celestial calendar created by the ancient Nazca civilization. Anthony Aveni, the Russell Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology at Colgate University and a pioneer in the field of archaeoastronomy, particularly the astronomical history of Latin America, presents an illustrated lecture about the Nazca Lines, reviews a number of seemingly diverse hypotheses relating to the origins of the Nazca lines, and puts them to the test by the examination of relevant evidence derived from remains in the area.
Are We Alone? – Dr. Jill Tarter
SETI is an attempt to detect evidence of another distant technology. If we find such evidence, we will infer the existence of intelligent technologists. In addition to looking for radio signals, we’ve recently begun looking for very short optical pulses as well. As our own technology matures, we may try other means of searching, and we will certainly improve upon the searches that we are already conducting. Guiseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison ended their 1959 seminal paper on SETI with the statement, “The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search, the chance of success is zero.” This remains true today.
The Big Deal About Galileo – Dr. David Weintraub
Galileo looked through a telescope for the first time over 400 years ago. The global “100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project” of 2009 hoped to have as many people as possible look through a telescope from April 2, 2009 to April 5, 2009 as Galileo once did. Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory participated in the project by offering people a chance to view the stars on Saturday, April 4, 2009. Before viewing through Dyer Observatory’s Seyfert Telescope, Dr. David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University, led a discussion about Galileo Galilei including his scientific accomplishments and the trouble he got into as a result of his work.
Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet – Dr. Steve Squyres
Steve Squyres, lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Mission, talks about his passion for the red planet and the amazing journey to build and launch the rovers. As principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, one of NASA‘s most successful programs, Squyres is responsible for all of the scientific activities of the twin robots Opportunity and Spirit. Squyres, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, also discusses the possibility of water on Mars and the study of its geology, what it’s like to live on “Mars time,” and the ups and downs of the project.