About Us

Past Special Events

3rd Annual AOSS/Astronomy/EES Research Symposium

This year's symposium theme is "Planetary Astrobiology." It will be on Wednesday April 18, 2012 from 2:00 to 5:00pm in 1528 CC Little Bldg.

This year we have invited Prof. Mike Brown of CalTech to give a Keynote Address titled "Tales from the Outer Solar System"

In addition, three colleagues from AOSS, Astronomy, and EES will present the following research presentations

Prof. Jim Slavin (AOSS) MESSENGER Observations of Extreme Space Weather at Mercury
Prof. Nuria Calvet (Astronomy) The Signposts of Forming Planets
Prof. Greg Dick (EES) Extreme Life at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents and Beyond

Please note that while anyone may attend, the intended audience is resarchers and scientists in astrobiology and related fields.

A reception will follow the talks. RSVPs are not required, but they would help in organizing the reception. Please send them to mmoldwin@umich.edu.

A Celebration Of Five Decades Of The University Of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory

April 18, 2012 begining at 9AM in 260 Dennison

Mark your calendars for a special celebration of 50 years of the UMRAO. Wednesday April 18 begining at 9 AM, in 260 Dennison. There will be several speakers, listed below, as well as a lunch reception at noon. The day will conclude with a tour of the facility, leaving Dennison at around 2:30. For more information, contact Phillip Hughes.

View or download the flyer (includes the full schedule, with talk titles)

If you wish to join the tour of the UMRAO, please contact Margo Aller to sign up.

Guest Speakers:

Alan Marscher (Boston)
Matt Lister (Purdue)
Chris Shrader (NASA)
Amy Mioduszewski (NRAO)
Bill Howard (McLean, Va)
Tom Haddock (Translume)
Dan Homan (Denison)

2012 Mohler Prize

The 2012 Mohler Prize was presented to Scott Tremaine of the Institute for Advanced Study on Friday March 30 at 7 PM in 182 Dennison. Dr. Tremaine will then present a public lecture:

"New Worlds: The Search for Planets Outside the Solar System"

"For thousands of years humankind has speculated on the existence of planets and life beyond the solar system, but until recently astronomers have had only our own planetary system to study. Everything changed in 1995, however, when Swiss astronomers announced the first convincing evidence for a planet - though one very different from the Earth - orbiting a Sun-like star. In the past fifteen years, hundreds of planets have been found around other stars."

Dr. Scott Tremaine is the Richard Black Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. He has made seminal contributions to understanding the formation and evolution of planetary systems, comets, black holes, star clusters, galaxies, and galaxy systems. He predicted the Kuiper belt of comets beyond Neptune and, with Peter Goldreich, the existence of shepherd satellites and density waves in Saturn's ring system, as well as the phenomenon of planetary migration.

View the flyer: tremaine_poster.pdf

Orren C Mohler was chairman of the Department of Astronomy and director of the observatories from 1962 - 1970. The Mohler Prize was established in 1986, to recognize outstanding research in astronomy and astrophysics. Several past Mohler prize winners have gone on to receive Nobel or Crafoord prizes.

Members of the public are invited to Angell Hall at 9 PM for an SAS open house.

Ralph B. Baldwin Professorship in Astronomy Inaugural Lecture

Hugh Aller will present the first lecure for the Ralph B. Baldwin endowed Professorship, titled "Extragalactic Superluminal Radio Jets," on Thusrday, May 1 2008 at 4:10 PM in the Founder's room of the Alumni Center. A reception will follow. For more information, please call (734) 615-6653. More information on this lecture and on Hugh Aller is available at http://www.ur.umich.edu/0708/Apr28_08/23.php

Also, see the recent news item concerning superluminal radio jets from blazars on our news page: http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/about/oldnews.php#blazar

Lecture “Black Holes and the Evolution of Galaxies”

Douglas Richstone, Professor of Astronomy and Chair, Department of Astronomy will present the first Lawrence H. Aller Collegiate Professorship in Astronomy Lecture on Tuesday, March 18 2008 at 4:10 PM in the Alumni Cener Founders Room. The lecture and reception are open to the public. For more information please call 615-6449

Lecture Abstract: Supermassive black holes, once thought to be rare, are now seen to be ubiquitous in galaxy centers. The mass in the present-day population of black holes is consistent with the energy radiated by quasars during their lifetimes - these are the relics of quasars. At various times in the life of a galaxy its central black hole will dominate its central dynamics and radiation field, with poorly understood consequences for galactic evolution.

Fall 2007 Distinguished lecture series: Scales of the Universe

The department of Astronomy, Exhibit Museum of Natural History, and Student Astronomical Society (SAS) announce the Distinguished Lecture Series for fall 2007. Each Speaker will present a colloquium on Thursday (see below), and a public lecture on Friday. The public lectures will be offered on Friday nights at 7:30 p.m. in room 1800 Chem, and will be followed by observatory open house in Angell Hall. Scheduled speakers are: Sept 28, John Spencer (SWRI); Oct 5, Carl Heiles (Berkeley); Oct 19, Mario Mateo (UM); Nov 2, Niel Brandt (Penn State), and Nov 16, Michael Turner (Chicago).

Scales of the Universe examines what the universe is like on a variety of spatial scales ranging from the solar system to the entire cosmos itself. The lecturers will also focus on aspects of frontier research at each of the featured scales, giving a flavor of current astronomical studies in a variety of areas. The final lecture will feature the award of the U-M Astronomy Department's Orren C. Mohler Prize, for distinguished contributions to astronomy and astrophysics. The series will be offered this fall on Friday nights at 7:30 p.m. in room 1800 of the Dow Chemistry Building, 930 North University Avenue on the U-M central campus in Ann Arbor.

The full schedule, maps, parking information and more is available at http://astro.lsa.umich.edu/sas/scales

Details on the speakers and the lectures are available in this pdf.