October 19th - Vacation guide to the Solar System

Have you planned your next vacation yet? For those of you interested in winter sports, the onset of November means you can finally start hitting the slopes at the variety of ski resorts within the US! But, why not kick things up a notch? Want to get bigger air so you can practice back-to-back frontside 1080s and rival the likes of Chloe Kim? Then head on out to Pluto!

If you're not a big fan of snow, fear not! Jana Grcevich, our speaker on Friday, stepped us through the top 10 vacation spots within the Solar System. From taking in the breathtaking views of Saturn's haxagonal cloud pattern around its north pole to taking a leisurely blimp ride through the upper atmosphere of Venus; there is bound to be something everyone would enjoy! As Jana explained, we are at the dawn of a space tourism revolution, and although there are plenty of hurdles to overcome (such as how to protect ourselves from the lethal radiation doses we would be exposed to on such trips), it's fun to daydream about touring the Solar System one day.

"But I want to go right now!" Yeah, I hear ya! Fortunately Jana gave a couple of options we could all pursue starting now! The Intergalactic Travel Bureau, a group that Jana is a part of, has put out a virtual reality app that allows smartphone users to embark on "space vacations". So go get yourself a cardboard VR viewer, download the app, and start exploring! Alternatively, Jana briefly talked about a book she and Olivia Koski co-authored: "Vacation Guide to the Solar System", a fun book for readers of all ages.

After the talk, Jana answered many fun questions from the audience and had awesome Solar System post cards to pass out. The audience then headed up to the roof for some star gazing but were instead greeted with mostly cloudy skies. Nevertheless, views from atop the roof are always a nice treat!



-- Jorge Cortes (graduate student)

May 3: Why Dark Matter Matters

On Friday night, Kerstin Perez, a post-doc here at Columbia, told us that we can only see about 20% of the mass in the universe. The matter in the universe is mostly stuff that we can't see. The way that stars move in galaxies tells us that there's a lot more mass in those structures than we thought. But this extra mass doesn't emit light or interact with magnetic fields - we only see its gravitational effect. Because the matter doesn't emit or absorb light, astronomers have named it 'dark matter'. The current theory posits that dark matter is a fundamental particle that rarely interacts with normal matter, and then only via the weak nuclear force.

Kerstin also told us about the different ways scientists are looking for dark matter particles, including her own research. She built an instrument that flew on a balloon over Antarctica and attempted to detect the particles that form when two dark matter particles run into each other and annihilate. Other astrophysicists at Columbia are involved in a part of the ATLAS project at CERN that could detect dark matter particles from high energy collisions that simulate the early universe. Still others work at big underground detectors where they try to detect dark matter particles passing through Earth.

After Kerstin's talk, most of our audience members headed up to the roof of Pupin where Saturn and Arcturus were on display through our telescopes. The sky was clear and people were especially excited to check out Saturn's rings. A few folks chose to delay their observing to listen to a short presentation on the Herschel Space Observatory, the European Space Agency's infrared telescope which ran out of coolant last week and is no longer in operation. Others watched films about the universe on our 3D wall. 

--Steph Douglas (graduate student)

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel

Summer Astronomy Events

Two events happened over the last two weeks involving Columbia Astronomy's Outreach Program.

First, on Friday May 27 at 7 pm, about 30 people came to this year's inaugural Science Fiction Movie Night. Due to the success of last year's program, this year, we're screening science fiction films in Pupin Hall that have astronomical themes. Our calendar for the summer can be seen here, and there will be four additional ones before August.

May 27's movie was Red Planet starring Val Kilmer. Graduate student Lia Corrales led the discussion after the film about the various aspects of science fiction and science fact found in the movie. The people in attendance generally gave her rave reviews, if not the film. After the film, a few astronomers set up a six-inch Dobsonian telescope on College Walk and gave out free views of Saturn.

Then, last Friday, June 3, a number of Columbia Astronomers took telescopes over to Brooklyn for a star party associated with the World Science Festival. Many members of the general public came out and looked through the telescope at various astronomical targets. Hundreds of people got a chance to see Saturn, so it certainly was a success. See pictures of it here.

Don't forget: this Friday, June 10, another blockbuster movie, "The Fifth Element" will be shown with astronomy graduate student Jeff Andrews leading a discussion on the science truth and falsehoods present in the film.