IAS/PU Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

The births and mergers of neutron stars and black holes, the most exotic objects in the universe, can launch the fastest cosmic jets (gamma-ray bursts; GRBs) and shake the very fabric of space-time with gravitational waves. GW170817, the merger of...

The first three observing runs of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA gravitational wave detectors produced a wealth of "firsts," including the first observation of multiple "ringdown" modes from a black hole---the remnant of the first-ever binary black hole...

We are entering an extremely data-rich era in the next decade, with full 6D+chemistry information on dozens of stellar streams, to shape our understanding on the chemo-dynamical evolution of the Milky Way, as well as the nature of the dark matter...

AGN feedback is now widely considered to be one of the main drivers in regulating the growth of massive galaxies. In my talk I will describe several efforts in our group to understand the power, reach and impact of AGN feedback processes. We find...

We recently detected an isolated stellar-mass black hole (BH) unambiguously for the first time, and measured its mass, distance and velocity. We used HST to carry out precise astrometry of the source star of the long-duration, high-magnification...

For the first time, the entire visible sky is being surveyed for the violent, variable, and transient events that shape our universe by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). Combined, ASAS-SN, Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert...

In our LCDM paradigm, galaxies form and reside in dark matter halos. Establishing the (statistical) relation between galaxies and dark matter halos, the `Galaxy-Halo connection', therefore gives important insight into galaxy formation, and also is a...

A satisfying theory for star or planet formation should not consider these processes in isolation. With the power of recent observational surveys, we are well positioned to test detailed theoretical models of multiple-star formation and orbital...

After decades of preparation, the era of gravitational wave astronomy has begun. The gravitational wave detectors, LIGO and Virgo, have published a catalog of 90 events of coalescing compact objects including black holes and neutron stars. I will...

A primary scientific outcome of the Apollo program was the giant impact theory for lunar origin, in which a collision at the end of Earth’s main accretionary phase creates a disk from which the Moon forms.  In the past decade, the nature of a Moon...