Vandana Ramakrishnan - The formation of the largest cosmic structures in the universe

Vandana Ramakrishnan is a graduate student studying astrophysics under Dr. Kyoung-Soo Lee in the Physics and Astronomy department at Purdue. Her research interests include observational cosmology, galaxy formation, star formation and cosmic structure. These provide for a very solid formation for a presentation to us about galactic structure. This should be a very interesting presentation!

The largest structures in the present-day universe -- referred to as clusters of galaxies -- can contain a total mass greater than quadrillion suns and are home to up to thousands of galaxies. For some time, astronomers have known that galaxies living in this dense cluster environment develop differently from those in lower-density environment such as our Milky Way galaxy. How and why this happens is poorly known since such investigations require us to look ~10 billion years into the past and study the universe at "Cosmic Noon" when the universe was only ~1/4 its present size and these great structures we see today were just beginning to form. In this talk, we will take you back in time and show you a glimpse of the chaotic and exciting cosmic epochs when both the growth of galaxies and blackholes alike were at an accelerated pace.

Braden Garretson - Supernovae and the Amateur Astronomer

Mr. Garretson is a 5th-year senior physics honors student at Purdue University. He has worked with Prof. Dan Milisavljevic for about 3.5 years, studying supernovae. After graduation he plans on going to graduate school to continue this line of research.

Abstract: He will discuss the study of extragalactic supernovae (and other explosive transients) with large all sky surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility and the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory. One of the major challenges with these surveys is that we are beginning to discover so many supernovae that we don't have the observational resources to follow all of them up to enable the science we want to do. The Vera Rubin Observatory (launching in 2025) will discover more supernovae in its first year of operation than have been discovered in the history of astronomy. The group Mr. Garretson is working in is developing algorithms for a recommendation engine called REFITT (Recommender Engine for Intelligent Transient Tracking), which uses machine learning to predict the evolution of supernovae and make recommendations on which ones should be prioritized for observation, and which facilities are best suited to observe them.

The main aim of this presentation is to get amateurs involved in following up supernovae and effectively crowdsource the data. Mr. Garretson will give a demonstration and provide information on what kind of equipment is needed, and the process needed to take observations. The collected data are then sent to the research group for analysis. A lot of amazing science can be done even with relatively small telescopes.

Additionally, he will talk about the science the Milisavljevic group has done that's been aided by observations from REFITT, and about some of the outstanding questions that these upcoming surveys are going to answer.

Kevin Schindler - From Mulberry, Indiana, to Mars & Back (via Bloomington & Flagstaff) - The Story of the Slipher Brothers - Vesto & Earl

Kevin Schindler is the historian at Lowell Observatory - where he has worked for 29 years - and an active member of the Flagstaff history and science communities. He has authored eight books and contributes a bi-weekly astronomy column, “View from Mars Hill”, for the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper.

Growing up on a farm in Indiana, Vesto and Earl Slipher honed their talents for tinkering with machinery while learning the value of hard work. They put these skills and lessons to good use throughout their careers, both working in the field of astronomy and both spending their entire professional careers at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. They both helped revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. Vesto detected the expanding nature of the universe, and Earl photographed Mars more than anyone else in the world. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of their contributions.

Fun fact: Kevin has both a fossil crab and asteroid named after him.