Media
Cosmic Videos
Astronomy Talk: Exploring the Pluto System and Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth with NASAʻs New Horizons
Guest Speaker Alan Stern Principal Investigator NASA New Horizons Mission, Southwest Research Institute NASA’s New Horizons is the first spacecraft to successfully explore the Pluto System and a Kuiper Belt Object named Arrokoth, making history as the farthest flyby ever performed in our solar system. Learn more about the mission, the scientific payload it carries, […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: A Stretching Gas Cloud and Other Dusty Objects that Orbit Close to the Galactic Black Hole
Guest Speaker Randy Campbell Science Operations Lead W. M. Keck Observatory The Supermassive Black Hole (SBH) at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by a dense cluster of stars embedded in a complex structure of gas and dust. Randy will unveil recent study results on the more prominent dust and gas […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: Shadow the Scientists – Research as a Spectator Sport
Guest Speaker Dr. Puragra Guhathakurta Distinguished Professor, Astronomer & Department Chair, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics University of California Santa Cruz The Shadow the Scientists (StS) initiative out of UC Santa Cruz offers the opportunity for students anywhere in the world to eavesdrop via Zoom on professional astronomers as they carry out observations with […]
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Astronomy Talk: NASA: Exploring the Secrets of the Universe and Improving Life on Earth
Guest Speaker Thomas H. Zurbuchen Former Head of Science NASA Ever since NASA was established in 1958, expanding human knowledge of Earth, atmospheric phenomena, and space has been NASA’s priority. Discoveries made with both robotic and human exploration has changed how we think about the universe, our planet, and life beyond our planet. Dr. Zurbuchen […]
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Astronomy Talk: Intergalactic Immigration
Guest Speaker Jessica Werk Associate Professor, Department of Astronomy University of Washington The majority of atoms in the Milky Way, including on our planet, did not originate within our own galaxy and were likely fused in stars from long-dead satellite galaxies. These atoms have been cycling over vast scales for billions of years, swept up […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: First Images of Exoplanets With the Webb Telescope and a Look Forward to Keck’s New Exoplanet Imager
Guest Speaker: Dr. Andy Skemer Associate Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics University of California Santa Cruz This past summer at UC Santa Cruz, an international team of astronomers assembled to produce the first images and spectra of exoplanets taken with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Dr. Skemer will give a first-hand account of these […]
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Astronomy Talk: Getting a Sharp Look at Dark Matter
Guest Speaker Chris Fassnacht Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California, Davis Look around you. Everything that is familiar to us, what we would call “normal” matter, makes up just a tiny fraction of what is out there. Instead, the universe is dominated by the dark side, and the question of what makes […]
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Astronomy Talk: Searching for Distant Galaxies Using Keck and JWST
Guest Speaker Rebecca Larson NSF Fellow, Ph.D. Astronomy Student The University of Texas at Austin We’ll go on a journey of discovery that started with a small blip in Hubble images, became a fully-confirmed galaxy after Keck Observatory confirmed the (surprisingly bright) hydrogen signature, and is now a fully-characterized and incredibly interesting galaxy with JWST […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Discovering Planets With the Keck Planet Finder
Guest Speaker: Dr. Andrew Howard Astronomy Professor, Division of Physics, Mathematics, & Astronomy California Institute of Technology Keck Observatory’s newest instrument is the Keck Planet Finder (KPF), a spectrometer that will allow for the discovery of smaller planets than ever before, including Earth-mass planets orbiting nearby stars. KPF uses the latest technology to make ultra-precise […]
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Astronomy Talk: The Sound of Stars
Guest Speaker Dan Huber Associate Astronomer University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy Although we cannot hear it with our own ears, the Sun and other stars in the sky have been performing a concert for billions of years. Similar to a boiling pot of water, gas cells on the surface of stars that are the […]
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