Watson Lecture: Illuminating the Dynamic Night Sky

Shrinivnas (Shri) Kulkarni (Photo – caltech.edu)

Every second, a supernova is exploding somewhere in the universe.

By News Desk

Astronomers cannot see all of them, but the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a robotic camera based at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, enables scientists to capture thousands of such explosions every year, shedding new light on the volatile cosmos.

In this talk, Shri Kulkarni, ZTF’s principal investigator and the George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science, will discuss the history and development of ZTF, a public-private partnership aimed at the systematic exploration of the optical night sky. Using an extremely wide-field-of-view camera, ZTF scans the entire Northern sky every two days, discovering objects that erupt or vary in brightness such as supernovae, stars being swallowed by black holes, planets being engulfed by their parent stars, comets, and asteroids. Kulkarni will share some of the phenomena this cutting-edge instrument has revealed in its first years of operation and discuss how machine learning is powering an unprecedented new era of discovery at Palomar.

Evening Schedule

• 6:00 pm — Activities and music. Food, drinks, and books available for purchase
• 7:00 pm — Doors open
• 7:30 pm — Talk and Q&A
• 8:30 pm — Post-talk concessions and conversation

Watson Lecture – Illuminating the Dynamic Night Sky: Discoveries from the Zwicky Transient Facility
February 7, 2024
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location
Caltech - Beckman Auditorium
332 S. Michigan Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91106
To register for free, click here.