Exploring Galaxies and Beyond

GUEST SPEAKER: Lauren Corlies, Deputy Head of Education and Public Outreach, Vera C. Rubin Observatory
VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: Galaxies turn gas into giant collections of stars that light up the universe.  This simple statement of what happens with galaxies like our own leads to deeper questions of how this happens:  How does gas flow into galaxies?  How do stars help return this gas to the universe?  How does this process evolve as the universe gets older?  And ultimately how do we, as people with telescopes and computers, explore the answers to these questions?  In this talk, Dr. Corlies will present how we use our understanding of astronomy and supercomputers to build simulated galaxies to try to answer these questions.  She will show how these models provide predictions for telescopes to test and how they help design telescopes for the future.