Astronomy Speaker's Night - Building a Telescope the Size of the Earth
Visit a unique historical site in Richmond Hill and experience an engaging presentation led by experts and researchers in astronomy, covering a variety of exciting astronomy topics.
After the presentation, participants will tour the observatory and see a demonstration of the 74” telescope pointed to an interesting celestial object for the visitors to view (weather-dependent).
Please wear / bring appropriate supplies for being outside. A registered adult must accompany all registered participants under the age of 16.
Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the program start time in order to be signed in.
This program runs rain or shine.
Who can attend: Everyone
Fee:
Registration Link: ActiveRH
Location: David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) , Ontario Science Centre
Organized by: RASC, Toronto Centre
Abstract: Light, being a wave, has the remarkable property of producing alternating patterns of dark and bright spots when it interferes with itself. The study of these patterns, called interferometry, is a centuries-old scientific field which has revolutionized precision measurements of shapes and sizes of objects, ranging from stars to biological microorganisms, nanoscale materials and even gravitational waves. In astronomy, interferometry has culminated in the first image of a black hole by the Event Horizon Telescope, a radio “telescope” as large as the Earth. Its resolution is truly extraordinary: it is the equivalent of seeing an apple on the surface of the Moon. Now, what if instead of radio we used the light we are most familiar with, namely optical light? We could then resolve the equivalent of a cell on this apple from the Earth! Unfortunately, the associated technological challenges are insurmountable and we must be smarter. In 1954, Hanburry-Brown and Twiss were indeed smarter: using the particle nature of light, they set out to develop an entirely new technique. Dubbed Intensity Interferometry, their proposal could be carried out with optical light on sufficiently bright stars. In a spectacular demonstration in the 1970s, they measured the size of Sirius for the first time, with a precision as good as that achieved by the Event Horizon Telescope today. These are but a few highlights in a long history of innovative scientific thinking fueled by cutting-edge technologies, which has produced giant leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. In this talk, we will journey through this history, discussing what we have learned along the way and the exciting science awaiting us down the road.
Speaker bio: Dr. Galanis is a postdoctoral fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Before coming to Canada, he completed his PhD at Stanford University, specializing in particle physics. He was originally from Athens, Greece, where he did his undergraduate studies at the University of Athens. He has worked on various aspects of particle phenomenology: the discipline that seeks to test fundamental theories of particle physics beyond the current paradigm, the Standard Model. In particular, he looks at the cosmos and proposes various astrophysical and cosmological probes of such theories. In the past two years, he has changed gears by becoming an astronomer and proposing a new way to use intensity interferometry, and its unique promise for exquisite resolution, to do astrometry, namely to measure precisely distances between celestial objects. The science applications of this new technique range from exoplanet detection of Earth-size planets, to measurement of the properties of supermassive black holes.