Exploring the Milky Way with the Hubble Space Telescope

Our Milky Way galaxy is the home of over 200 billion stars of various sizes, colors, brightnesses, and ages. By imaging the Milky Way with a resolving power more than 10 times better than the largest ground-based telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope is revolutionizing our understanding of stellar evolution from cradle to grave. In this lecture, we’ll travel with Hubble to the cores of star-forming nebulae and observe newborn stars emerging from their cocoons in giant pillars of gas and dust. We’ll obtain a glimpse of the Sun’s distant future by visiting the colorful, symmetric nebulae ejected by similar stars upon the termination of their nuclear energy production. We’ll also explore in detail the supernova remnants left behind by the colossal explosions of massive stars observable on Earth by naked eye hundreds of years ago.

Here are the slides (31mb file).

Hubble’s View of Galaxies Near and Far

The best evidence that the universe began with a Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago is the cosmic microwave background radiation. This radiation dates back to a time just 380,000 years after the universe began when every point in space was as hot as the Sun. As the cosmos expanded and cooled beyond this time, galaxies formed and evolved into the familiar spirals and ellipticals seen nearby today. We’ll discuss the deepest, most detailed optical image of the universe made to date with Hubble and how it is consistent with a Big Bang cosmology. Along the way, we’ll explore the concepts of dark matter, dark energy, and galaxy collisions through other Hubble images of galaxies near and far.

Here are the slides (20mb file).

The Search for Other Earths

NASA launched the Kepler Space Telescope in 2009 with the primary objective of determining whether or not Earth-size planets are common in our galaxy. Kepler detects planets around other stars (exoplanets) by observing and timing tiny eclipses in the brightness of a star as any satellite exoplanets orbit in front of it. The Kepler results now indicate that there are many billions of Earth-size planets in the Milky Way. We’ll discuss the challenges of detecting exoplanets, the details of the Kepler mission, and the implications of its results. We’ll also explore current efforts to identify Earth-size, Earth-mass exoplanets in the habitable zones of their host stars. The ultimate goal of imaging exo-Earths and determining if their atmospheres can support life may be achievable within a few decades.

Here are the slides (16mb file).
 

Lean, Mean, Killing Machines: A Look at the Paleobiology of Meat-eating Dinosaurs

With famous names like T. rex, Allosaurus, and Velociraptor, meat-eating dinosaurs (also known as theropods) are among the most popular of dinosaurs. Long-depicted as ferocious, blood-thirsty, mindless killers, the popular perception of theropods has gone through a renaissance in the past two decades, in part due to their portrayal in movies as more complex animals, with a range of behaviors (and even intelligence levels) similar to those of modern predators. But does this new perception of theropods actually reflect current paleontological knowledge or is it just Hollywood fantasy? In his talk, Dr. Therrien will discuss recent studies on the feeding behaviors and sensory abilities of theropods that cast light on the paleobiology and lifestyle of these ancient predators. As we learn more about the feeding strategies, bite force, eyesight, and sense of smell of theropods you will be able to answer the ultimate question: “Can we believe everything we see in the movies?”

Alberta, Land of Dinosaurs and Other Paleontological Wonders

In addition to the Rocky Mountains and its petroleum industry, the province of Alberta, Canada enjoys an international reputation for another type of natural resource: dinosaurs. Based on the high diversity and sheer abundance of fossils found within its borders, Alberta easily ranks among the five best places in the world to find and study dinosaurs. This position of honor results from the fortuitous combination of the province’s geologic past and modern climate: dinosaur bones, buried millions of years ago by rivers draining the newly formed Rocky Mountains, are being exposed today by erosion in the badlands of the dry Alberta prairies. This natural process has brought innumerable paleontological wonders to the surface to the amazement of lucky discoverers. Although paleontologists routinely scour the Alberta badlands in search of new fossils, many significant dinosaur discoveries have been made serendipitously by members of the general public during recreational activities and by industry during exploration and development activities. Dr. Therrien will showcase some of the most significant paleontological discoveries made in Alberta, from the first member of the tyrannosaur family ever discovered to the first feathered dinosaurs found in North America, and demonstrate why Alberta can legitimately be called the “Land of Dinosaurs.”

Here are the slides (131mb file).

The Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction: What do we Really Know?

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction is one of the most famous extinction events in Earth history, marking the end of the Age of Dinosaurs approximately 66 million years ago. Although it is widely known that dinosaurs were wiped out during this event, many other types of animals also went extinct at the same time, both in the oceans and on land, resulting in the disappearance of nearly 75 percent of all species on Earth. Despite frequent claims of “ground-breaking discoveries,” the exact details of the K-Pg mass extinction remain shrouded in mystery. Ongoing research by paleontologists and Earth scientists aims at elucidating how rapidly species went extinct, the reasons why some species disappeared while others survived, and what caused the mass extinction event. We’ll discuss the current state of knowledge about the K-Pg mass extinction and attempt to answer the question “What killed the dinosaurs?”