Third Nuclear and Particle Theory Meeting

The focus of this meeting is on Beyond the Standard Model Physics with Nucleons and Nuclei. This small and informal meeting is meant to bring together the theoretical and experimental nuclear and particle physics communities with the scope of fostering new collaborations.

This initiative will also be beneficial to local post-docs and students as they will be exposed to the current research programs. The meeting will be held remotely over two and a half days.

This event is generously supported by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting - Quasars: Black Holes, Bright Lights!

Quasars are very bright, very distant objects first found by the powerful radio waves that many emit. They must generate tremendous amounts of energy to be visible across a billion or more light years. Dr. Kimball will explain how quasars are detected and mapped and why astronomers think that supermassive black holes are linked to the quasar power source. She will also talk about her work with the Very Large Array, an interconnected group of twenty-seven massive radio telescopes, each with a disk over eighty feet across.   

Dr. Amy Kimball is a staff scientist at the NRAO headquarters in Socorro, NM. She assists astronomers worldwide who use the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope facility.  She is also the Head of Operations of the VLA Sky Survey, which is in the process of imaging the entire radio sky visible from New Mexico.  Dr. Kimball uses the VLA and other telescopes (both radio and non-radio) to study the demographics of quasars--- super-massive black holes at the centers of large galaxies.

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit  www.slasonline.org  or call 314-962-9231.

St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting - Standing on the shoulders of Apollo 15

While millions dream of traveling to the Moon, only 24 people have had an opportunity to do it. This talk aims to take listeners on a multimedia journey through space and time. We will traverse the intersection of science and exploration from Apollo 15, to the upcoming Artemis mission in 2024. Apollo 15, which just celebrated its 49th anniversary, was the first of what was called the Apollo "J" missions. Apollo 15 was capable of a longer stay time, greater surface mobility, and more significant science than previous missions. When we return to the Moon with Artemis, we will be building upon Apollo, advancements in human spaceflight from the shuttle and International Space Station, and commercial and international partnerships. Apollo and Artemis are benchmarks for what is, and what can be possible for lunar exploration. As Isaac Newton wrote in the 17th century, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend it's meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org or call 314-962-9231.

St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting - Water, water, everywhere

“Water, water, everywhere: from the study of meteorites to the origin of Earth's water”, a presentation by Dr. Lionel Vacher of Washington University, will be featured at the September meeting of the Saint Louis Astronomical Society. The meeting will be held via Zoom online conference only, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The meeting and lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 18. Zoom access information is posted on the Society’s website, https://www.slasonline.org/. The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium, is open to the public free of charge. 

Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, to an average ocean depth of almost 2.5 miles. Where did all that water come from?  The origin of Earth’s oceans is a major topic of modern planetary science research. Most theories about the formation of the Earth propose that our planet formed too close to the Sun to retain large quantities of water. Dr. Vacher will explain the leading theories for the original source of Earth’s water, and indicate how his own studies of certain types of meteorites may provide some answers to water questions. 

Dr. Lionel Vacher is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Physics at Washington University and a member of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.  His primary research interests include “primitive” meteorites, the origin of water in the solar system, the effects of water on meteorite chemistry, and hydrothermal experiments. 

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit https://www.slasonline.org/, or call 314-962-9231. 

St. Louis Space Frontier Meetup

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Apollo to Artemis and Beyond, a presentation by Jeff Gillis-Davis of Washington University will be featured at the September meeting of the St. Louis Space Frontier. Zoom access information will be revealed when people RSVP for the event at https://www.meetup.com/Saint-Louis-Space-Frontier-Meetup/events/273219856.

The Apollo astronauts spent only 80 total hours of EVA (i.e., working/exploring) time on the Moon's surface. Combining knowledge from their brief forays with extensive analyses of Apollo samples and lunar meteorites, remote sensing data, experiments, and modeling, scientists have learned a significant amount about the lunar environment. NASA’s Artemis missions and Commercial Lunar Payload Services will enable scientists and engineers to examine the surface up close for the first time in half a century. These new missions for science and exploration will teach us how to conduct in situ resource utilization; navigate safely in extreme conditions; mitigate dust; how to build infrastructure with soil and on top of it; and how to keep humans safe in space. The techniques scientists will develop on the Moon will make it possible for humans to safely and sustainably explore farther destinations, such as asteroids and Mars.

Dr. Gillis-Davis has been a Research Associate Professor of Physics at Washington University since 2018. For the prior fifteen years, he worked at the University of Hawaii. His research there involved data from NASA’s MESSENGER mission, which orbited Mercury, and radar data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission. At Washington University, he is the principal investigator of NASA’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for Exploring Volatile Origins. This team of international researchers studies the origin, evolution, and interactions of volatiles on the Moon and asteroids.

The Saint Louis Space Frontier is a chapter of the National Space Society. The NSS Vision is: People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity. The chapter meets monthly, participates in outreach events, has fun at social events, and hosts the Gateway to Space Conference each fall. For more information about the St. Louis Space Frontier, please visit: http://stlouisspacefrontier.org/.

St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting - Black Holes: Astrophysics Final Frontier

In 1916 Albert Einstein published a paper demonstrating that space and time can be warped in the shape of a wave. One hundred years later, scientists announced the first observation of a "ripple of space-time" from two colliding black holes. Astrophysicists have discovered that black holes are ubiquitous in the universe. They come in (almost) all sizes, rule galaxies from their centers, make gold and platinum, and power the most energetic known phenomena in the sky. Black holes may even provide clues to the nature of the most mysterious substance yet to be found, dark matter.  

Dr. Marco Cavaglia is Professor of Physics at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri. He has authored over 230 publications in scientific journals. His scientific interests are in gravitational physics, astrophysics, theoretical physics, and education and public outreach.  

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org or call 314-962-9231. The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium, is open to the public free of charge. 

Wednesdays with WashU: Robert L. Behnken

Join us for a conversation between Chancellor Andrew D. Martin and Robert L. Behnken, BS ’92, BS ’92, (Colonel, U.S. Air Force) NASA Astronaut. The two will discuss Colonel Behnken's experience as a NASA astronaut and his most recent Spaceflight experience as a member of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, Demo-2 mission, which landed August 2, 2020. 

A St. Louis native, Colonel Behnken attended WashU as an Air Force ROTC scholar. Behnken earned bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and engineering physics and was the university’s Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Senior. He was awarded the engineering Young Alumni Award in 2009 and the Founder’s Day Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013.

St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting - Mirror Asymmetry in Life and in Space

Most organic molecules exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other.  One of the great unanswered questions in our evolutionary history is why all life forms on Earth and their critical biological molecules, such as amino acids and proteins, use only one of these forms. For instance, sugars are exclusively right-handed, amino acids are left-handed, and even DNA coils into right-handed helices. The phenomenon of single handedness is called homochirality. How and why did our single-handed world emerge? Dr. McGuire will describe how we can peer into the center of our galaxy for the answer. He will also talk about the current understanding of how such an excess may have arisen in the interstellar medium and before the formation of the Solar System. 

Dr. Brett McGuire is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT. He and his colleagues use the tools of physical chemistry, molecular spectroscopy, and observational astrophysics to understand how the chemical ingredients for life evolve with and help shape the formation of stars and planets. 

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org or call 314-962-9231. The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium, is open to the public free of charge. 

St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting - Pulsars-Timekeepers of the Cosmos

Pulsars are neutron stars that are formed in supernova explosions following the collapse of massive evolved stars. These exotic objects are more massive than the Sun. They have been compressed by gravity into a sphere that is typically smaller than a city, and they can spin over 700 times a second. They have extremely high magnetic fields - over a trillion times the strength of Earth’s. These properties make them energetic sources of radio waves, which are beamed along their magnetic axes. We detect a "pulse" of radio emission once every pulsar rotation period, in a similar manner to a lighthouse. The rotation periods of pulsars can be measured incredibly precisely, making these "cosmic clocks" excellent laboratories for fundamental physics experiments. Dr. McLaughlin will give an overview of pulsars and their properties. She will also describe several recent highlights of pulsar research, including the search for gravitational waves from the most massive black holes in the universe. 

Dr. Maura McLaughlin is the Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University and Director of the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. She studies pulsars using the world's largest radio telescopes.  She is Co-Director of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center, which aims to detect gravitational waves using high-precision timing observations of these cosmic clocks.  

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org or call 314-962-9231. The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium, is open to the public free of charge.