Announcements

“Chandra and the Invisible Universe”

18 February 2024 (Sunday) , 9:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time (01:00 UTC), 17 February, 2024 8:00 pm EST

By Jonathan C. McDowell, PhD (Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Chandra X-ray Observatory)

Abstract: The famous Hubble Space Telescope takes the sharpest visible-light images, but only its X-ray telescope cousins can see the invisible, high-energy light that helps complete the cosmic story. The sharpest X-ray pictures of the cosmos come from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999 but still making discoveries today. Chandra’s X-ray camera can see erupting black holes, exploding stars and colliding galaxies — some of the most energetic events in space.

Jonathan McDowell will highlight Chandra’s discoveries and explain how it and other X-ray telescopes probe cosmic dramas, while infrared images unveil the cool, gentle process of star birth, and pictures taken with ordinary visible light give an overview of the everyday life of the galaxies. Combining all three views has been crucial to the astonishing discoveries astronomers have made in recent decades.

Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Chandra X-Ray Center, which operates the Chandra X-ray Observatory spacecraft.

McDowell obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, England, in 1987. After postdoctoral research at Jodrell Bank radio observatory in the U.K. and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, he has been at CfA since 1992.

McDowell studies quasars, galaxies and black holes as well as the effects of satellite constellations on astronomy. He is also the author of the internet newsletter Jonathan’s Space Report, which has been reporting on satellite and rocket launches since 1989.

In 1993, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 1933 OB as 4589 McDowell in his honor.

“The Search for Planet 9”
20 January 2024, 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time (02:00 UTC)
By Dr. Michael E. Brown (Professor of  Planetary Astronomy, Caltech)

In 2006, Pluto was demoted to a “dwarf planet”. Since then, a team of planetary scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has been searching for a hypothesized planet on the edge of the solar system. This is Planet Nine, and its search will be discussed by no other than Dr. Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech.

Dr. Michael E. Brown scans the skies searching for and intensely studying distant bodies in our solar system in the hope of gaining insight into how our planet and the planets around it came to be. In this quest, he has discovered dozens of dwarf planets (and demoted Pluto from planet to dwarf planet) and is currently hot on the trail of Planet Nine — a hypothesized body that is possibly the fifth largest planet of our solar system.
Dr. Brown has been on the faculty of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 1996 and has authored more than 150 scientific papers. He has also won many awards and honors, including the Urey Prize from the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences, a Presidential Early Career Award, a Sloan Fellowship, and the 2012 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. He was inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2014.

Abstract: In the past 175 years, more than 30 separate astronomers have suggested the existence of a giant planet beyond Neptune. They have always been wrong. In 2016, Konstantin Batygin and I joined the list, suggesting that Planet Nine, at a distance perhaps 20 times greater than that of Neptune, is the only plausible explanation for a wide range of phenomena in the distant solar system. I’ll talk about why we think Planet Nine is real, how we are continuing to develop our hypothesis, and what we are doing to track down this elusive planet and when we might find it. Or why we, too, might be wrong.

“NASA’s Best Space Images for 2023 “
By Dr. Robert J. Nemiroff, APOD co-founder
17 December 2023 (Sunday), 10:00 am Philippine Standard Time
(16 December 2023, Saturday, 9:00 pm EST)

The year is about to end, and for all amateur astronomers and astrophotographers out there, we would like to invite you to an online talk on “NASA’s Best Space Images for 2023 ” by no other than the co-founder of APOD, Dr. Robert J. Nemiroff.

Dr. Robert J. Nemiroff will present some of the favorite images and videos from NASA’s highly popular science website, “Astronomy
Picture of the Day,” or APOD (https://apod.nasa.gov). He will discuss the science and the stories behind these images. The subjects include the distant universe, the Solar System, auroral displays from our increasingly active Sun, and much more.

Dr. Robert J. Nemiroff worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before joining the Physics Department of Michigan Technological University. He received his Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania, and his main research interests include gamma-ray bursts, gravitational lensing and cosmology. In 1995, he co-created the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), which he continues to co-write and co-edit to this day. In 2023, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 2002 GB185 as 270558 Nemiroff in his honor.

The Night Sky Over America’s Beautiful National Parks

By Wally Pacholka (Landscape astrophotographer)

29 October 2023 (Sunday) at 10:00 am Philippine Standard Time

(28 October 2023, Saturday, 10:00 pm EDT)

This October 29, 2023 (Sunday), at 10:00 am, you are all invited to our 2023 ALP Astronomy Experts Speaker series online talk by the noted landscape astrophotographer, Mr. Wally Pacholka.

In this presentation, you will learn from an award-winning astrophotographer how to capture stunning landscape astrophotos that get published using simple equipment and technique.

Mr. Wally Pacholka is a  pioneer in the field of landscape astrophotography, and specializes in capturing National Park landscapes across the United States. His astrophotos have been published by NASA 47 times, National Geographic 29 times and TIME-LIFE 18 times, including four times as its Annual Picture of Year.

His work sells in more than 35 U.S. National Park gift shops and online at AstroPics.com. He currently has exhibits at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the Natural History Museum in New York City.

“New Windows to the Sun”
Dr. Valentin Martinez Pillet
Solar Physicist and Director, U.S. National Solar Observatory Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
September 17, 2023, Sunday, 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time (September 16, 2023 Saturday, 10:00 p.m. EDT)

We are currently at solar maximum (solar cycle 25), or at a period of heightened solar activity, wherein our Sun exhibits a lot of visible sunspots, solar flares, prominences and geomagnetic storms.The Astronomical League of the Philippines is very happy and honored to present an online lecture by Dr. Valentin Martinez Pillet . on the topic – “New Windows to the Sun: The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope and Its Companions” this coming September 17, 2023, Sunday, at 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time.
Dr Valentin Martinez Pillet is a solar physicist and the current Director of the U.S. National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Boulder, Colorado.

“Searching for the Oldest Stars and Galaxies in the Universe”
By Hillary Diane Andales
Ph.D. Student in Astronomy & Astrophysics, The University of Chicago
Filipino Science Communicator

On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRM2qXnMquMAugust 13, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time (August 12, 2023 Saturday, 10:00 p.m. EDT), the Astronomical League of the Philippines would like to invite everyone to an online lecture by Ms. Hillary Diane Andales, a young and brilliant Filipina physicist who will talk on “Searching for the Oldest Stars and Galaxies in the Universe”.

Ms. Hillary Diane Andales studies the oldest stars and galaxies in the cosmos. A native of Abuyog near Tacloban, Leyte, and a graduate of Philippine Science High School – Eastern Visayas Campus, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this year, and she will soon start her Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
While at MIT, she received the Barrett Prize and the Chambliss Medal for her outstanding research on galactic archaeology. Eager to make the physics community more inclusive, she also served as President of the MIT Society of Physics Students. Outside of MIT, she is a dynamic and creative Filipino science communicator whose work has reached more than 8 million viewers worldwide. In 2017, she received $400,000 worth of prizes after winning the international competition, Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
(You can follow her work at https://hillaryandales.com/.)

Abstract:
What was the early universe like? This is the big question that stellar and galactic archaeologists seek to answer. Much like how archaeologists search for fossils to learn about the early Earth, we look for cosmic fossils, such as billions-of-years-old stars and galaxies, to learn about the early universe. Using the clues from these fossils, we can answer even more big questions: How do galaxies form? Where do heavy elements like gold come from? What is the nature of dark matter? The emerging fields of galactic and stellar archaeology might hold some clues!