2010 Carnegie Astronomy Lecture Series at the Huntington

Massive Stars: Life and Death

Dr. Prieto will explain why massive stars are extremely important in the cosmic landscape. Throughout their lives, they generate enough energy to modify their surroundings and affect the evolution of galaxies, enriching the interstellar medium with heavy elements. At death, they can produce the most energetic explosions in the Universe (supernovae and gamma-ray bursts), releasing a copious amount of energy and new elements.

Tiny but Powerful

Supermassive black holes, with masses of millions to billions of times that of our own Sun, are found lurking at the centers of most nearby large galaxies. But which came first, the black hole or the galaxy? Dr. Greene will talk about the search for the smallest supermassive black holes in existence today, and what they teach us about the very first black holes.

Bright Galaxies and Dark Matter

We live in a Universe that is incredibly large and surprisingly complex. Yet one of its many remarkable features is that we understand some of it! Dr. Rubin will describe how astronomers learned that most of the matter in the Universe is dark, not visible at any wavelength. This fact should ultimately teach us fundamental new features about our Universe.

Meet the Galaxy's Neighbors

The Milky Way lives in a quiet suburb of the Universe. However, the galaxies in our local neighborhood are not without an intriguing past. What kinds of galaxies populate the volume of space surrounding the Milky Way and where did they come from? Dr. Lee is leading a study which is providing the most complete census of local galaxies to-date, and will discuss how astronomers learn the answers to such questions.