Links to YouTube Video and Meeting Minutes Below
JULY MEETING
In-person and via ZOOM (ID & Password Required)
Meeting & Speaker
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 7:00 PM
at Seagrave Memorial Observatory
Topic: “Caught in the Cosmic Web”
Speaker: Dr. Margaret Geller, CFA Harvard
A computer model of the large-scale structure of the universe using the Illustris simulator.
This image depicts the dark matter and gas involved in forming galaxies and galaxy clusters,
as well as the filaments connecting them.
Credit: Illustris
Speaker: Dr. Margaret Geller, CFA Harvard
A computer model of the large-scale structure of the universe using the Illustris simulator.
This image depicts the dark matter and gas involved in forming galaxies and galaxy clusters,
as well as the filaments connecting them.
Credit: Illustris
Dr. Geller’s talk, “Caught in the Cosmic Web”, and will describe her adventures in mapping the universe throughout her career. She will discuss the initial discovery of the cosmic web and the HectoMAP project that she is now leading to survey the middle-aged universe. This survey uses data from two of the largest telescopes available to provide the redshift and other spectroscopic data to determine distances to more than 100,000 galaxies. Dr. Geller show how we use these studies to understand structure in the universe and to lay the foundation for future even larger maps extending deeper into the universe.
Biography
Margaret J. Geller is a pioneer in mapping the large scale structure of the universe. Her maps have provided a new view of the enormous patterns in the distribution of galaxies like the Milky Way --- the largest patterns we know.
Dr. Geller's long-range scientific goals are to discover what the universe looks like and to understand how it came to have the rich patterns we observe today. To put the pieces of this grand puzzle together her research projects range from the structure of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, to mapping the distribution of the mysterious, ubiquitous dark matter in the universe.
Dr. Geller's current main research interests are:
- Mapping the distribution of the mysterious, ubiquitous dark matter in the universe.
- Mapping the middle-aged universe to understand how clusters and large-scale structure evolve. She leads a project called HectoMAP.
- Combining redshift surveys and weak lensing to understand how galaxies trace the dark matter in the universe
Date: Saturday, July 9, 2022
Time: 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Eastern
Location:
Seagrave Memorial Observatory
47 Peeptoad Road
North Scituate, RI 02857
