Rijksmuseum Boerhaave and the Lorentz Center together organize the public lecture ‘Exploring the Ghostly Side of Galaxies with Dragonfly’ by Professor Roberto Abraham on Thursday 16 August 2018. The lecture starts at 18.00 at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave.
Bigger telescopes are usually better telescopes…. but not always. In this talk professor Abraham will explore the ghostly world of large structures at the sky, such as galactic stellar halos, low-surface brightness dwarf galaxies, and other exotica such as supernova light echoes. These objects are nearly undetectable with conventional telescopes, but their properties may hold the key to understanding how galaxies assemble. Professor Abrahams will describe why finding these objects is important, and why it is so devilishly difficult.
One possibility is the Toronto/Yale/Harvard Dragonfly Telephoto Array, which is now being used to explore the low surface brightness universe and is testing some of the most fundamental predictions of galaxy formation models. Professor Abraham will show some early results, made with this telescope consisting of 48 commercial telephoto lenses. One of them is the discovery of a new class of ghostlike galaxies (Ultra Diffuse Galaxies) that are as big as the Milky Way but have about 1/100 of its stellar mass.
Roberto Abraham
Speaker Roberto Abraham is a professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. His work is focused on observations of galaxy formation and evolution and the development of innovative instruments, such as the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, now the world’s largest all-refracting telescope.
Collaboration Lorentz Center and Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
This public lecture is part of the Lorentz Center workshop 'The Bewildering Nature of Ultra-diffuse Galaxies’, which takes place from 13 Aug 2018 through 17 Aug 2018.
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave and the Lorentz Center together organize public events in which internationally respected experts address a wide audience on topics of societal and/or scientific importance.
The mission of Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, the Dutch National Museum for the History of Science and Medicine, is to increase public support for science in the Netherlands. The Museum’s activities are always designed to connect with current issues.
Lorentz Center is a workshop center located at Leiden University. The Center organizes international workshops in all scientific disciplines, with the aim of promoting innovative and pioneering research, often relating to complex societal challenges. See www.lorentzcenter.nl for more information.
Lecture: ‘Exploring the Ghostly Side of Galaxies with
Dragonfly’
Language: English
Date: Thursday 16 August 2018, 18:00 - 19:00
Venue: Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Lange Sint
Agnietenstraat 10, Leiden
Entrance: Special Guest Card, entrance ticket, friend of the museum
