Events
Events
Upcoming
Illuminating the Origins of the Universe’s Fastest Explosions
05:00 pm - 06:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Wen-fai Fong, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: Join us as Wen-fai Fong describes the universe’s fastest explosions. When we look at the night sky, we see a static universe. However, astronomical observational surveys have revealed that our universe is, in fact, ever-changing. This “transient” sky […]
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The Past, Present, and Future of Space Telescopes
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: J. Christopher Howk, Professor of Physics, University of Notre Dame ASTRONOMY TALK | Maunakea Observatories are among the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world. They become even more powerful when combined with the use of telescopes in space, allowing astronomers to explore the extremes of the universe. As the best-known space observatory […]
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In Search of the Ultimate Ruler: The Grand Challenge of Distances in Astronomy
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: John O’Meara, W. M. Keck Observatory Chief Scientist ASTRONOMY TALK | Even with the most powerful telescopes and instrumentation, astronomy faces a fundamental problem: the ability to determine the distance to objects in the cosmos. From the solar system to the cosmic microwave background, the history of astronomy is intertwined with the hunt […]
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PŌWEHI Hawaii and the Event Horizon Telescope
06:30 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKERS: Astronomers Geoffrey Bower, Jessica Dempsey, and Doug Simons and Larry Kimura from the College of Hawaiian Language, University of Hawai`i Hilo ASTRONOMY TALK | Join us to talk story about the groundbreaking results from the Event Horizon Telescope and the pioneering role the Maunakea Observatories played in this nearly-impossible experiment. We will also […]
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A Primitive Planetesimal in the Kuiper Belt Explored by New Horizons
06:30 pm - 07:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Will Grundy, Astronomer, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona ASTRONOMY TALK | NASA’s New Horizons mission broke records on New Year’s Day 2019 after encountering the most distant object in our solar system ever explored by a spacecraft – a small Kuiper Belt object named 486958 2014 MU69, also known as Ultima Thule. The peanut-shaped […]
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Exploring Planets Orbiting Nearby Stars
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Courtney Dressing, UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Astronomy ASTRONOMY TALK | The NASA Kepler mission revealed that our Galaxy is teeming with planetary systems and that Earth-sized planets are common, but most of the planets Kepler detected orbit stars that are too faint to permit detailed study. Excitingly, the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey […]
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Where Did We Come From: A Tale About Galaxies Far, Far Away
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Marusa Bradac, UC Davis Associate Physics Professor ASTRONOMY TALK | One of the greatest accomplishments in recent astrophysics is the creation of a model for the history of the universe. The newborn universe was a dark place until the very first galaxies lit it up. Travel at the speed of light to journey back in […]
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Universe in Reverse, the Keck Time Machines
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Matt Malkan, UCLA Professor of Astronomy ASTRONOMY TALK | What’s new in the young universe? Shortly after the Big Bang, our universe has been measured to have been almost amazingly uniform. Fortunately for our existence, it didn’t stay that way long. The excess gravity of slightly over-dense regions slowed their expansion and eventually caused […]
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Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Alex Filippenko, Professor of Astronomy at University of California, Berkeley; Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences; Miller Senior Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science ASTRONOMY TALK | We expected the attractive force of gravity to slow down the rate at which the universe is expanding. However, […]
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Shining Light on Gravity: Sometimes All That Shimmers IS Gold
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
Gates Performing Arts Center, HPA Campus, Waimea (Kamuela, HI) Guest Speaker: Ryan Foley, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at University of California, Santa Cruz ASTRONOMY TALK | In 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, a radiant form of energy similar to light, but caused by gravity. A century later, scientists detected the […]
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Dragonflies, Dark Matter, and the Hunt for Ghostly Galaxies
07:00 pm - 08:30 pm
Gates Performing Arts Center, HPA Campus, Waimea (Kamuela, HI) Guest Speaker: Pieter van Dokkum, Sol Goldman Family Professor of Astronomy and Divisional Director of Physical Sciences and Engineering at Yale University ASTRONOMY TALK | They are so ghostly that you can see right through them! They look unlike any other galaxies we’ve seen before. Learn about […]
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