Science Briefing: The Shocking Universe
Location
Virtual
Contact Information
About Event
In this edition of NASA’s Universe of Learning Science Briefings, we will explore cosmic shocks — regions where fast-moving particles crash into slower material, triggering sudden changes in temperature and often producing light. These shocks can occur in a variety of environments, from the jets of newborn stars to fast-moving stars and interacting galaxies.
Tom Ray will tell us about the “shocking” truth of star formation.
Roger Romani will discuss how pulsars and other supersonic sources generate visually striking bow shocks, revealing much about the object’s wind and the material it crashes into.
Philip Appleton will describe how a rapidly moving “intruder” galaxy is colliding at high speed with a group of galaxies, creating numerous supersonic shock waves in the gas between the galaxies.
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, T. Ray (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies); R. W. Romani (Stanford University) et. al. 2022; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Max-Planck Institute/P. Appleton (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech).
The NASA’s Universe of Learning Science Briefings are professional learning telecons for the informal science education community, done in partnership with the NASA’s Museum & Informal Education Alliance, now found on NASA CONNECTS. These monthly thematic briefings highlight current NASA astrophysics explorations and discoveries from across the suite of NASA astrophysics missions. NASA scientists and engineers provide contemporary science results, and are able to respond to listener questions during the telecon. NASA-developed education and outreach resources, matched to the monthly theme, are included in every briefing.
In order to participate in the telecon and ask questions of the scientists, please join NASA’s Museum & Informal Education Alliance.
Facilitator & Presenters
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Dr. Martha Irene Saladino is an Education & Outreach Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where she supports the outreach efforts of different NASA missions and projects, including the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and NASA’s Universe of Learning. Martha Irene obtained her Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands, where she developed numerical simulations of evolved Sun-like double stars. Outside of work, Martha Irene enjoys running, reading, and digital illustration. -
Professor Tom Ray is President of the European Southern Observatory and Co-Principal Investigator of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). He is also Co-Principal Investigator of Ariel, a European Space Agency mission to explore the atmosphere of nearby planets. His astronomical expertise is in star and planet formation. -
Dr. Roger W. Romani has been a professor of physics at Stanford since 1991. His research group focuses on high-energy astrophysical sources, especially black holes and neutron stars. They use a combination of observations spanning the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to gamma-rays, and theoretical modeling to understand the remarkable behavior of these exotic sources. Since the pulsar and black hole environments display the most extreme conditions in the observable universe, these studies can also improve our understanding of fundamental physics. Away from the office, Roger swims with the local Masters team and plays French horn in several community orchestras. -
Dr. Philip Appleton obtained a degree in Physics at the University of Leicester (UK), and a Ph.D. in Radio Astronomy (1980) at the Jodrell Bank Observatory at the University of Manchester, UK. He was a Professor of Astrophysics at Iowa State University from 1988 to 2001, where he moved to Caltech/IPAC as a Senior Research Scientist working with the Spitzer Space Telescope. He was the IPAC Project Scientist and task lead for the NASA Herschel Science Center until 2019, and is now at the NASA Euclid Science Center (Caltech/IPAC). He is interested in understanding how galaxies evolve over cosmic time, and especially galaxy collisions, molecular and atomic shock waves, and star formation.
Event Resources
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Slide Presentation PPT
169 MB -
Resources Document
232 KB