This list is for seminars from 2011 and before; a more recent archive of ASR seminars is available here.

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

21st Jan - Future European initiatives in exoplanet studies by Glenn White, University of Kent

The European Space Agency has ambitious plans to detect and characterise the atmospheres and potential for habitability of planets orbiting around other stars. These studies will be complemented during this decade with the ESA/ESO Ground Based Nulling Interferometer experiment (GENIE - 2008), and in the next decade with the proposed launch of the DARWIN space interferometer (2016). A series of other missions are contained within the current programme; COROT (2006) will carry out astro-seismology, and attempt to detect rocky planets around other stars, GENIE (Ground based European Nulling Interferometer - 2008) will test out technologies for the future DARWIN Mission and search for exo-zodiacal discs and 'Hot Jupiters' using the VLTI interferometer; the proposed SMART-3 mission (2009) will test formation flying techniques and technologies for unconnected space interferometry; GAIA (2010) will search for low mass stellar companions and exoplanets occulting the star. ESA is currently drawing up its Cosmic Vision 2015 programme, which includes bold new initiatives in space interferometry and submm/far-infrared missions to study 'The Birth and Evolution of Planets and Stars', and 'The History & formation of Galaxies' (which includes high mass star formation). In this talk I will give a brief overview the current status of exoplanet science and spacecraft based interferometric systems; discuss the scientific and technical drivers of the currently planned missions; summarise current technological planning and science activities that are underway; and suggest ways that the UK community might become more involved. I will also discuss other applications of these systems and missions in studies of extragalactic and galactic objects, including quasars and their host galaxies, binary stars, galactic nuclei, brown dwarfs and fundamental stellar physics, contrasting this with science that we will hope to be doing with ALMA in the next few years.

16th Feb - The Thirty Meter Telescope Project by Warren Skidmore, Caltech

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project is engaged in a design and development phase. TMT is proposed as a private-public partnership of the California Institute of Technology and the University of California (partners in the earlier CELT design study), AURA (designers of the earlier GSMT concept), and the Canadian ACURA consortium (designers of the VLOT concept). The partners are developing a 30 meter diameter, finely segmented filled aperture telescope with seeing-limited and diffraction-limited capabilities to address the broad range of GSMT science goals. I will present the status of the site testing, telescope and instrument design.

23rd Feb - Constraints on the properties of high density matter from observations of neutron stars by John Miller, SISSA / Oxford University

Observations of the properties of neutron stars are now starting to place serious constraints on models of high density matter. In particular, this talk will consider implications from observations of the double pulsar and of systems which are claimed to contain neutron stars with masses well above the canonical 1.35 - 1.4 solar masses. Implications for gravitational-wave emission will be discussed.

9th March - From Supernova to Hypernova: Understanding Supernova Diversity by Philipp Podsiadlowski, Oxford University



4th - 8th April - National Astronomy Meeting



1st June - Growth and Decay of Substructure in Cold Dark Matter Halos by Andrew Benson, Oxford University

The growth of dark matter halos and the population of subhalos within them forms the backbone on which the process of galaxy formation takes place. A precise understanding of galaxy formation therefore requires a precise understanding of halos and their structure. I will discuss recent analytic work aimed at improving calculations of halo growth and of the evolution of the subhalo population, focussing on orbital parameters, tidal mass loss and two-body interactions.



19th October - Dark Galaxies by Jon Davies, Cardiff University

16th November - X-ray Binaries by Tom Maccarone, University of Southampton

30th November - White Dwarfs and Gravitational Waves by Tom Marsh, University of Warwick

2004

3rd December - Mass, radius and gravitational redshift determination for the neutron star 4U 1728-34 in X-ray bursts by Agnieszka Majczyna, Copernicus Astronomical Centre, Warsaw

10th November - Solar coronal heating by magnetic reconnection by Philippa Browning, UMIST

11th Oct - Twists and turns and seeing in the dark: Flexion and 3D Gravitational Lensing by David Bacon, IfA, Edinburgh