January 28, 2019 7:30-9:30PM

Event: Astronomy on Tap
Venue: Der Wolfskopf

Talk 1

Title: Interstellar Booze: What Alcohol Can Teach Us About Our Cosmic Origins
Lecturer: Shreyas Vissapragada
Position: Graduate Student
Institution:Caltech

Talk 2

Title: Staggering with the Stars
Lecturer: Marie Ygouf
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution:IPAC

Quiz Questions / Answers

1. What physical process is responsible for the sky being blue? Rayleigh Scattering
2. What object in the outer solar system was recently imaged by the New Horizons Probe on New Years Day? (486958) 2014 MU69 -- Ultima Thule
3. Why physical effect is responsible for pulsars appearing to pulse? B-field, rotation, or synchrotron radiation
4. During lunar eclipses, like the one last week, why does the Moon get dark? Earth's shadow
5. In what constellation is the North Star? Ursa Minor
6. In what year does the next total solar eclipse pass through the continental USA? 2024
7. What did the discoverers of the Cosmic Microwave Background, "the echo of the Big Bang", originally propose was the source of the signal? Pigeons nesting in their receiver
8. What sort of object is proposed to exist in the center of most galaxies? SMBH
9. Many NASA and NSF employees were prevented from working on their research during what event lasting most of January 2019? The government shutdown
10. Last week, the Chinese Lunar Lander, Chang'e 4, successfully sprouted what kind of plants on the Moon? Cotton, potato, rapeseed