Professor Kathryn Johnston gave a great lecture on Friday, October 17, about how galaxies collide with each other. With the help of simulations and a comparison to observations she explained that collisions among galaxies are common in the universe, commenting that many galaxies are in fact expected to be the remnants of galaxy mergers billions of years ago. Applying these concepts to our own galaxy, she presented some of her own research searching in the Milky Way for the tell-tale signs of recent galactic mergers: tidal streams. While in fact, through careful astronomy, we do see several tidal streams, Prof. Johnston showed that, through simulations, we expect our galaxy to merge with dozens of smaller, dwarf galaxies. She ended the talk with a video showing a simulation of what is expected to happen in a few billion years when our galaxy collides with our closest major galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.
Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy so no observing was possible, but one of our graduate students, Jana Grcevich, displayed 3D videos with our dual projector setup. Another graduate student, Josh Schroeder, took visitors on a tour of our telescopes and explained their history. We also had two mini-lectures about techniques used to find planets in other solar systems, and planetary nebulae. From the 120+ visitors that enjoyed Kathryn's talk, we received a great deal of excitement to come back in the future, especially during clear weather. Thanks also, to the 5+ volunteers that made the event possible!
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