09/11/14: SO/NOAO Joint Colloquium Series: S. R. Kulkarni, CalTech
S. R. Kulkarni Director, Caltech Optical Observatories
"The Dynamic Universe: Palomar Transient Factory"
That occasionally new sources ("Stella Nova") would pop up in the heavens was noted more than a thousand years ago. The earnest study of cosmic explosions began in earnest less than a hundred years ago. Over time astronomers have come to appreciate the central role of supernovae in synthesizing new elements (and making life as we know possible). The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), an innovative 2-telescope system, was designed to explicitly to chart the transient sky with a particular focus on events which lie in the nova-supernova gap. PTF can find an extragalactic transient every 20 minutes and a Galactic (strong) variable every 10 minutes. The results so far: discovery and spectral classification of 2300 supernovae, identification of an emerging class of ultra-luminous supernovae, insights into the progenitors of type Ia supernovae, discovery of luminous red novae, the most comprehensive UV spectroscopy of Ia supernovae, discovery low energy budget supernovae, clarification of sub-classes of core collapse and thermo-nuclear explosions, mapping of the systematics of core collapse supernovae, detection of gamma-ray bursts entirely via their optical afterglow, identification of a trove of eclipsing binaries (including a planet around a newly born star) and identification of a number of the curious AM CVns.
For Public
Public events include our Monday Night Lecture Series, world-reknowned Astronomy Camp and Mt Lemmon Sky Center.
For Students
A good place to start if you want to become an undergrad major or grad student, or need to find our schedule of classes.
For Scientists
Find telescopes and instruments, telescope time applications, staff and mountain contacts, and faculty and staff scientific interests.
