Astrophysics Seminars

ABSTRACT: We will discuss the first astrophysical results from the Planck spacecraft, and prospects for cosmology with Planck and sub-orbital CMB polarimeters.

ABSTRACT: How, why and when are the scaling relationships between black holes set? Do accreting black holes really regulate the evolution of their host galaxies? What physical mechanisms underly feedback? I will discuss some recent results made...

ABSTRACT: The problem of motion in General Relativity has lost its academic status since the new generation of gravitational wave detectors relies upon an accurate description of the dynamics of inspiralling compact binaries. The main difficulty in...

ABSTRACT: Life arose on Earth sometime in the first few hundred million years after the young planet had cooled to the point that it could support water-based organisms on its surface. The early emergence of life on Earth has been taken as evidence...

ABSTRACT: Dark matter density profiles based upon ?CDM cosmology motivate an ansatz velocity distribution function with fewer high velocity particles than the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution or proposed variants. The high velocity tail of the...

ABSTRACT: LCDM simulations successfully explain large-scale structure but appear to deviate from observations at small scales. Motivated by the local Universe, I will examine the dynamics of two so-called 'CDM crises' in detail and describe a...

ABSTRACT: For the last six years, the Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn, making a wide variety of measurements of the planet, its moons and its rings. Besides yielding such dramatic discoveries as the lakes of liquid hydrocarbons...

Hot Jupiter atmospheres are thought to harbor relatively deep, statically stable radiative layers due to the intense irradiation they receive from their host stars. This reduces the planet's ability to cool and inhibits vertical transport of heat...