Extragalactic Astrophysics with VERITAS
| Date/Time: | Thursday, 19 Nov 2009 from 10:10 am to 11:10 am |
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| Location: | Physics, room 3 |
| Phone: | 515-294-9901 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Categories: | Lectures |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
The field of very-high-energy (VHE) astrophysics has expanded immensely in the last ten years, moving from ~10 sources to over 100. In the past two years of operation, VERITAS, an array of four 12-m diameter imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes located in southern Arizona has played a major role in this expansion, discovering several new VHE AGN, pulsars, super-nova remnants and even a new class of objects: starburst galaxies. With this expansion, the questions that prompted the development of this field can begin to be answered. This talk will highlight the extragalactic studies that have been done with VERITAS and detail what we've learned about the universe though the VHE window.
BIO
Jeremy Perkins has worked on the VERITAS project as a physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian's Fred Lawrence Whipple observatory in southern Arizona for 3 years. Before this, he received his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis working on X-ray and gamma-ray astrophysics with a focus on clusters of galaxies and hard X-ray detectors.
Working at the VERITAS site has given Jeremy a unique opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the VERITAS project including being the interim project manager for six months. Currently, Jeremy is leading VHE studies of extragalactic objects such as Clusters of Galaxies, GRBs, starburst galaxies and AGN.