TBD

Presentation

The number of known exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System) grows daily. Over the past few decades, dedicated missions using both ground and space telescopes have discovered over 5,000 exoplanets, many of which seem unlike anything in our own Solar System. While such discovery missions aren’t new, our ability to study these worlds in detail has only recently been enabled by the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in late 2021. Over the past four years, JWST has opened powerful new windows into the atmospheres of extra-solar worlds, yielding unexpected findings and a richer understanding of the diversity of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. Matthew Murphy will share a few of the most exciting recent discoveries about exoplanet atmospheres by JWST, led by a world-wide team of researchers, including Murphy and others at the University of Arizona. These include what appears to be a new class of planet, nonexistent in our own Solar System. In addition to these discoveries, JWST’s unique power enables researchers to peer into exoplanet atmospheres along new dimensions, and better comprehend their complexity. Matthew will tell the exciting story of how this works, and the discovery his team made as a result on a planet (WASP-107b) considered ‘strange’ to us. 

Biography: 

Matthew Murphy is a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. His work is dedicated to observing and studying the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System. Matthew is an expert in using the largest and most powerful telescopes around the world and in space, including the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. He has published several scientific articles making new discoveries about exoplanets. Matthew will be graduating with his PhD later this year. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Stony Brook University in 2020. 

Caption: Artist’s illustration of exoplanet WASP-107b

Artist: Rachael Amaro/University of Arizona

Presentation: 

The number of known exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System) grows daily. Over the past few decades, dedicated missions using both ground and space telescopes have discovered over 5,000 exoplanets, many of which seem unlike anything in our own Solar System. While such discovery missions aren’t new, our ability to study these worlds in detail has only recently been enabled by the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in late 2021. Over the past four years, JWST has opened powerful new windows into the atmospheres of extra-solar worlds, yielding unexpected findings and a richer understanding of the diversity of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. Matthew Murphy will share a few of the most exciting recent discoveries about exoplanet atmospheres by JWST, led by a world-wide team of researchers, including Murphy and others at the University of Arizona. These include what appears to be a new class of planet, nonexistent in our own Solar System. In addition to these discoveries, JWST’s unique power enables researchers to peer into exoplanet atmospheres along new dimensions, and better comprehend their complexity. Matthew will tell the exciting story of how this works, and the discovery his team made as a result on a planet (WASP-107b) considered ‘strange’ to us. 

Biography: 

Matthew Murphy is a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. His work is dedicated to observing and studying the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System. Matthew is an expert in using the largest and most powerful telescopes around the world and in space, including the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. He has published several scientific articles making new discoveries about exoplanets. Matthew will be graduating with his PhD later this year. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Stony Brook University in 2020. 

Caption: Artist’s illustration of exoplanet WASP-107b

Artist: Rachael Amaro/University of Arizona

I was reminded that the Lunar Eclipse is on the same day as this months AFSIG meeting. 
In an optimistic outlook for the weather, I will be canceling this months meeting.

Main Presentation at 7:30 PM

Following the lecture, the 21” Raymond E White, Jr Telescope will be open, weather permitting.

Title: THE ACCELERATING EXPANDING UNIVERSE: DARK MATTER, DARK ENERGY, AND EINSTEIN’S COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

 Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing the cosmological expansion to accelerate. In this non-technical talk, Professor Bharat Ratra will describe the astronomical data which persuade cosmologists that (as yet undetected) dark energy and dark matter are by far the main components of the universe’s current energy budget. He will review how these observations have led to the development of a quantitative “standard” model of cosmology that describes the evolution of the universe from an early epoch of inflation to the complex hierarchy of structure seen today. Professor Ratra will also discuss the basic physics, and the history of ideas, on which this model is based.

Biography: 

Bharat Ratra, distinguished professor of physics at Kansas State University, earned his Master of Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and his doctorate at Stanford University.  In 1988, Ratra and Jim Peebles proposed the first dynamical dark energy model. Ratra joined Kansas State University in 1996. He is best known for his work on dynamical dark energy and on the quantum-mechanical generation of energy density and magnetic field fluctuations during inflation. Recipient of many awards, his most recent is the American Physical Society’s 2025 Julius Edgar Lilenfeld Prize, which recognizes outstanding contributions to physics and exceptional skills in lecturing to diverse audiences.