Determining the Structure of the Milky Way Galaxy: Past, Present, and Future
| Date/Time: | Monday, 18 Apr 2016 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Physics 0003 |
| Phone: | 515-294-5441 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: Ascertaining the three-dimensional structure of our Milky Way Galaxy in all of its components (stars, gas, star formation, magnetic fields, cosmic rays, and dark matter) has been a long and tortuous journey. But there is no other galaxy that we can study in such detail and all models for the structure and evolution of galaxies must be consistent with the physical properties that we observe up-close in our own Galaxy. The "modern era" of Galactic structure began at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, but rapidly moved to the efforts of Dutch astronomers to map the neutral hydrogen component of the Galaxy. I will provide a brief review of this history, update you on the current status of what we now know about the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy (including two new results) and summarize some of the major US and European missions that can be expected to make significant advances in the future.
Biography: Prof. Bob Benjamin, Chair of the Dept of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is an expert on the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy and the physics of the interstellar medium. He obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at Carleton College, his PhD in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, and did post-doctoral work at the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The result of one the project he worked on can be found at www.spitzer.caltech.edu/glimpse360