April 3, 2020 8-10PM

Event Type: Lecture and Stargazing
Title: The Circumgalactic Medium: The Gas Around Galaxies
Lecturer: Yuguang Chen
Position: Graduate Student
Institution: Caltech
Abstract:
The galaxies that we are familiar with are only a tiny tip of a giant iceberg. In 1969, astronomers John Bahcall and Lyman Spitzer proposed that all galaxies are embedded in massive, enormous gas clouds. It is only in the last decade that we have developed efficient tools to detect and probe the details of these clouds, which are now known as the “circumgalactic medium”. But what is the nature of this gas? How do we study it? And how does it affect how galaxies like our Milky Way form and evolve over cosmic time? I will address these questions and introduce you to this exciting frontier in astronomy.