Matthew Newby on "Milkyway@home:  Citizen Science, Colliding Galaxies, and Dark Matter"

The Milky Way galaxy is currently colliding with several less massive dwarf galaxies, which are presently being torn apart and will eventually be absorbed into our Galaxy.  Their disruption patterns provide vital clues to out Galaxy's history and the distribution of matter (including dark matter). The largest and most dominant of these "tidal streams" are those belonging to the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr), which wraps at least once completely around the galaxy and spans 15° of width in the sky, presenting astronomers with an excellent opportunity to test theories of galaxy evolution.  The Milkyway@home project (http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/) uses modern computational techniques to analyze over 4 million stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).  We are working to produce detailed descriptions of star distributions in the Galactic halo, including the leading Sgr tidal stream.  This talk will present a brief overview of hot topics in modern Galactic astronomy, emphasizing current progress in mapping the Galactic halo, and discuss the results in the context of the search for dark matter.

Matthew Newby is currently a 5th year PhD student in Astrophysics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.  He earned his Bachelors of Science in Physics from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.  He is a 'Galactic Archaeologist,' piecing together the history of our galaxy by studying it's large-scale structure.  Currently he is studying Dwarf Galaxies and Globular Clusters bound to our Milky Way galaxy by gravity, but orbiting outside the main disk.  By studying the orbits and constitution of these objects, he hopes to build a better understanding of how matter - including dark matter - is distributed in our galaxy.  One of the tools he uses for this is Milkyway@home, a volunteer computing platform with over 26,000 users in 150 countries that allows users to crunch real science data in the search for dark matter.

Meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 pm at miSci (formerly the Schenectady Museum),
except in August, when we have a star party at the Landis Arboretum.

A Note on Meeting Cancellations during Winter Months

Remember that bad weather may force a meeting cancellation.  If the Schenectady Museum is closed, our meeting is canceled.  Most of the local radio and television stations have on-line listings of closings, or check with the museum (382-7890).  We will announce cancellations on the club and Rising Star Yahoo groups (astro_albany and risingstar), or you can call Alan at 374-8460.