Join us IN-PERSON 7pm this Thursday, 10/21 for this month’s Astronomy on Tap at the newly-opened Literary Bookstore and Bar! We will have two talks by University of Illinois graduate students Alex Deich and Breanna Lucero:
“How do spacecraft work?” with Alex Deich
You’ve been given as big a budget as you want to build a spacecraft to go to Mars. Congratulations! But what do you need to make it work? How do you actually make something that can move in space? And once you’re in space, how do you know where you are and where to go? In this talk, Alex will give you a flyby tour through the basics of what you need to make a spaceship.
“Not to Scale: Using the Structure of the Universe as a Time-Machine to see Deep Into the Past” with Breanna Lucero
The deeper you peer into the universe, the further you look back in time. There are limits to how far current survey technology can take us, but utilizing the warping power of galaxy clusters, we can magnify some of the earliest objects in the universe. Come learn about how the entire universe looks a lot like your brain, what happens to light when massive structures assemble, and how dark matter confuses us all! It’s really about the big picture.
Breanna is a third year PhD student in Astronomy here at UIUC where she does research in observational cosmology with Joaquin Vieira. She is a Graduate College Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan scholar, and ARCS Foundation scholar. She was born and raised in California and graduated from UC Riverside with her bachelors in Physics. She now does research on high redshift galaxies that she selects and analyzes with the Dark Energy Survey and Hubble Space Telescope. She is passionate about advancing scientific literacy and hopes to continue professionally as a science communicator. Outside of research she plays soccer, writes and performs with a local rap group, and fulfills her duties as a dog mom to her shiba inu, Luna.
Alex is a fourth year PhD student at UIUC, where his work focuses on modifications to the theory of general relativity with Nico Yunes, and is a member of the Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe. Prior to graduate school, he worked at the Swift Gamma-Ray Space Telescope where he focussed on mission design and spacecraft automation. From time to time, you can find him on his bike in the hills above Kickapoo, or, if he’s lucky, the Sutter Buttes of California.
Grab a drink, bring your friends and family, and let’s have some fun while we learn! We hope to see you there!
Poster design by local artist @illomati
For more updates about AoT events, subscribe to our mailing list here: https://lists.illinois.edu/lists/subscribe/astronomyontap