Astronomy Lecture for IYA 2009
| Event Type: | Campus and Community Events |
| Location: | DeMeritt Hall Lecture Hall (RM 112) |
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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Calendars:
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Public,Student Events and Programs
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Contact:
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Richard Woolf
603-862-4595
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| Title Url: | http://physics.unh.edu/observatory/IYA_lectures.html |
In celebration of the 400th anniversary since Galileo first peered through a telescope to view the heavens, the UN has declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 2009).
The UNH Physics department will be hosting a series of lectures throughout the year to help celebrate this event. At 3PM on Saturday, November 7th, UNH Physics Professor and Dept. Chair, Eberhard Möbius, will give a talk entitled: "Astronomy with Neutral Atoms: IBEX Catches the Interstellar Wind and Images the Solar System Boundary." He will be discussing the following: 400 years after Galileo pointed a telescope at celestial objects for the first time, we have now added neutral atoms to our astronomical toolbox with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), which was launched October 19, 2008. Two energetic neutral atom cameras have taken the first global images of the interaction of the solar system with its neighborhood. They are catching the interstellar wind of neutral H, He, and O atoms that blows through the solar system with a speed of 60,000 miles/hour that arises from the Sun’s motion through the neighboring interstellar gas cloud. They also return stunning images of the heliospheric boundary region, where the solar wind is slowed down by the interstellar medium, with bright features that nobody had predicted. The heliosphere, surrounds our solar system like a protecting bubble against high-energy cosmic rays from distant regions in the Milky Way. IBEX’s exciting results will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun’s interaction with its galactic neighborhood and of the heliosphere’s ability to shield the solar system.
Event open to the public?:Yes