2008 Carnegie Astronomy Lecture Series
This year, the Carnegie Astronomy Lectures will be held at TWO (2) different venues.
The March 25 and April 1 lectures will be held, as in
past years, in Friends’ Hall at the Huntington Library,
Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road,
San Marino, California.
(visit www.huntington.org
for directions)
The April 22 and April 30* lectures will be held in
Magnin Auditorium at the Skirball Cultural Center,
2701 North Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, California
(visit www.skirball.org for directions)
* Note that the April 30 lecture is on a Wednesday.
All lectures are free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please arrive early.
Parking is free at both venues.
All lectures start at 7:30 p.m., with light refreshments available ahead of time.
For more information about the Carnegie Observatories or this lecture series, please contact Arnie Phifer at 626-304-0270 or phifer[at]ociw.edu.
HUNTINGON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
San Marino, California
Tuesday | March 25, 2008 | 7:30 PM
Dr. Juna Kollmeier
Carnegie-Princeton and Hubble Fellow
Carnegie Observatories
The Great Escape: Hypervelocity Stars
The most recently discovered population of stars in the galaxy is
the “Hypervelocity Stars.” These objects are shooting out of the
MilkyWay at such high speeds, they will escape the galaxy’s gravitational
pull and will never return. Dr. Kollmeier will look into
how they get their enormous velocities, and what we can learn
from them about the MilkyWay’s dark matter halo, star formation,
and the supermassive black hole at the galactic center.
Tuesday | April 1, 2008 | 7:30 PM
Dr. Mark Seibert
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Carnegie Observatories
Opening an Ultraviolet Eye on the Universe
Dr. Seibert will report on the latest cutting-edge insights and
discoveries from the first ultraviolet map of the sky being created
by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) space telescope.
He will discuss and explain a wide range of galactic and extragalactic
topics, from the stunning comet-like tail of a nearby
star to the surprising discovery of extended star formation in
the outer portions of disk galaxies.
SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER
Los Angeles, California
Tuesday | April 22, 2008 | 7:30 PM
Dr.Wendy Freedman
Director and Staff Astronomer
Carnegie Observatories
Einstein’s Biggest Blunder?
Einstein called it his biggest blunder, yet astronomers have recently
come to the startling conclusion that he may have been right: there
seems to be a force pushing the universe apart. Physicists and
astronomers do not yet understand this result, which is one of the
biggest mysteries in science. How did we learn that the universe is
expanding? And accelerating? Dr. Freedman will trace the early roots
of cosmological discoveries up to the most exciting new results.
Wednesday | April 30, 2008 | 7:30 PM
Dr. Alan Dressler
Staff Astronomer
Carnegie Observatories
Looking for Life (in All the Right Places)
As our knowledge of the universe grows, astronomers find themselves
returning to two fundamental questions—“How did we
get here?” and “Are we alone?”—that have fascinated humankind
for millennia. How the potential for life arose with the birth of
galaxies, stars, and planets is the story of where we ourselves came
from. Dr. Dressler will discuss how finding life beyond Earth will
soon be within our grasp.
