Gamma ray astrophysicist Dr. Gus Sinnis of Los Alamos National Laboratories will present a lecture entitled "Astronomy at a Trillion Volts" on Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. in the LodeStar Astronomy Center planetarium theater.
Sinnis will focus on the work of the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory at LANL, where scientists, using a large pool of water as a telescope, observe the universe at energies one trillion times that of visible light. Some of the phenomena studied at these extreme energies are supermassive
black holes ejecting particle beams at nearly the speed of light, dense neutron stars, and possibly the most energetic phenomena in the universe--gamma ray bursts.
Sinnis is co-spokesman for the Milagro Collaboration at LANL. He is also a member of the High Resolution Fly's Eye Experiment, which studies ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
Admission is $6 adults, $5 seniors (age 60+), $3 children (ages 3 to 12). The talk is part of the "Voices in Science" lecture series co-presented by LodeStar and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. LodeStar is located in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History at 1801 Mountain Road N.W.
For information visit LodeStar Astronomy Center.
Contact: Karen Keese, (505) 841-5972
Posted by scarr at November 8, 2004 08:10 AM