CGCA Seminars

Ohana Kilo Hoku: Hawaiian Culture Based Astronomy Outreach
Tyler Trent
University of Maryland

Astronomy in Hawaii has become highly controversial in recent years, with construction of new telescopes on Mauna Kea drawing large protests from the local communities, especially Native Hawaiians. As someone who was born and raised on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and has Native Hawaiian ancestry, I share my perspective on the conflict and present on the work of Ohana Kilo Hoku, a Native Hawaiian non-profit organization I am a member of. Drawing inspiration from ancient Native Hawaiian's who used the night sky to navigate the Pacific Ocean, we work to cultivate relationships between the youth and the science of the sky above.

Low-Frequency Radio Transients
Reshma Anna Thomas
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, University of Amsterdam

The low-frequency radio sky (<300 MHz) remains comparatively underexplored for fast and slow transients (~ microseconds to minutes), primarily due to strong propagation effects as well as instrumental challenges. However, this regime provides unique leverage on plasma environments and emission physics that are inaccessible at GHz frequencies. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic coherent transients with millisecond durations, often exhibiting sub-millisecond temporal structure. I will present detections of two FRBs at 150 MHz using beamformed searches with LOFAR, which place some of the most stringent constraints to date on free–free absorption in their local environments. In parallel, a new class of Galactic sources, long-period transients (LPTs), has recently emerged, characterized by emission on second-to-minute durations and periodicities spanning minutes to hours.

Title and abstract to be determined
Janeth Valverde
Marquette University

The abstract for this talk will be added as soon as it is made available.

Galaxy-Scale Gravitational Wave Detection: The MPTA and the Road Ahead
Dr. Matt Miles
Vanderbilt University

Gravitational waves are emitted across a vast spectrum of frequencies. Ground-based detectors such as LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA observe relatively high-frequency waves from compact object mergers, while at the other end of the spectrum, the inspirals of supermassive black hole binaries produce a low-frequency rumble detectable only with a galaxy-scale instrument. By monitoring the pulses emitted by millisecond pulsars distributed across the Milky Way, pulsar timing arrays construct such a detector, spanning thousands of light-years.

Title and abstract to be determined
Shanika Galaudage
Northwestern University

The abstract for this talk will be added as soon as it is made available.