WU Physics Department
WU Physics Department
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Written in the alignment of planets and stars
Astronomical bodies typically have small sizes relative to the large distances between them, leading to their alignment along our line of sight, known as a syzygy, to become a rare phenomenon. Nevertheless, syzygies reveal crucial insights into the laws of physics as well as the characteristics of planets and stars in the Universe. The invention of the telescope and Johannes Kepler's remodeling of planetary motion in the 17th century paved the way for the prediction and first successful observation of transits of Mercury and Venus across the Solar disk in 1631 and 1639, respectively. While these observations led to significant advancements in physics and astronomy, similar attempts over the next few centuries have failed to detect planets beyond our solar system while transiting across the disk of their host star. Eventually, the development of Charged Coupled Devices (CCDs) in the latter half of the 20th century significantly improved the precision of stellar brightness measurements and led to the first discovery of a transiting exoplanet in 1999. Since then, comprehensive monitoring of exoplanetary transits and eclipses, enabled by missions such as the Kepler Space Telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, has rapidly improved our understanding of exoplanet demographics. Complementary spectroscopic observations during transits and eclipses enabled by large-aperture, space-based observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope further allow us to probe their atmospheric compositions, presence of clouds, and habitability prospects, helping us address outstanding knowledge gaps in how planets form, evolve, migrate, and potentially support life.
Переглядів: 2 281

Відео

Cosmic Coincidence: The Science of Eclipses
Переглядів 2687 місяців тому
On February 10, 2024 Jim Buckley from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, will be hosting this Saturday's Science Lecture, "Cosmic Coincidence: The Science of Eclipses". Through a remarkable set of circumstances involving collisions on a cosmic scale, the Earth was left with a single large moon. And by a cosmic coincidence, the angular size of the Moon and Sun on the ...
Black Holes, Bombs, & Beyond
Переглядів 1289 місяців тому
Michael Nowak from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, will be hosting this Saturday's Science Lecture, "Black Holes, Bombs, & Beyond - the Interconnected History of Astrophysics and Nuclear Weapons Research at Los Alamos" on November 11, 2023. Prior to his work at Los Alamos, Oppenheimer conducted important theoretical studies of matter collapsing to form a black hol...
Oppie - the Los Alamos Years: nuclear science and a weapons primer
Переглядів 849 місяців тому
Lee Sobotka from the Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, will be hosting this Saturday Science Lecture, "Oppie - the Los Alamos Years: nuclear science and a weapons primer" on November 4, 2023. We will cover the crucial physics of the war years: fission and fusion; how and why the natural isotopes of Uranium 235U and 238U differ; how the produced Plutonium isotopes 239P...
Oppenheimer’s pre-war research and the rise of American quantum physics
Переглядів 1499 місяців тому
Michael Ogilvie from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture, "Oppenheimer’s pre-war research and the rise of American quantum physics" on October 28, 2023. J. Robert Oppenheimer, like Arthur Holly Compton, was one of the first great American quantum physicists. Before his academic research career gave way to his work on the Manhattan ...
X-ray Astronomy in Living Color
Переглядів 112Рік тому
Mike Nowak from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture on April 22, 2023. Observational astronomy is mostly a story about measuring photons with precision - how many are there, what direction are they coming from, when do they arrive, and what are their energies? The better we can make those measurements the better our understanding o...
Physics and Our Next 20 Years
Переглядів 115Рік тому
Mike Ogilvie from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture on April 15, 2023. Humans have found increasingly sophisticated ways to explore, understand and manipulate the world around us. From the discovery of planets around other stars to the use of virtual reality headsets, the pace of change is very fast, and affects every aspect of o...
What Would a Renewable Energy System for St. Louis Look Like?
Переглядів 44Рік тому
Anders Carlsson from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture on April 1, 2023. Moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is crucial for minimizing the extent of global warming. Since renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are intermittent, a renewable energy system requires excess generation capacity coupled with energ...
The Thermodynamic Structure of Short-Range Spin Glasses
Переглядів 248Рік тому
Daniel Stein, New York University/Courant Institute, presented this colloquium on November 16, 2022. The thermodynamics of spin glasses, and more generally the statistical mechanics of quenched disorder, is a problem of general interest to physicists and mathematicians from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. Its importance was recognized in 2021 with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physic...
Compton Forever
Переглядів 122Рік тому
Mike Nowak from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture on November 5, 2022. Arthur Compton’s 1922 scattering experiments conducted here at Washington University demonstrated the particle nature of light and paved the way for the development of quantum mechanics. In this talk, however, I will discuss how the “Compton Effect,” as it has...
Arthur Holly Compton’s Influence on WashU Chemistry
Переглядів 264Рік тому
Lee Sobotka from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture on October 29, 2022. One of Arthur Holly Compton’s first actions as Chancellor was to reach out to Joseph Kennedy, the head of chemistry, metallurgy and scientific security at the Manhattan project's site at Los Alamos, NM (the site that became the Los Alamos National Laboratory ...
Compton and WWII: the Manhattan Project
Переглядів 767Рік тому
Mike Ogilvie from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture on October 22, 2022. Arthur Holly Compton played a key role in the development of atomic weapons by the United States during World War II. Although the history of the Manhattan Project is filled with colorful characters and interesting stories, Compton, along with Oppenheimer, w...
The Compton Effect at 100
Переглядів 440Рік тому
Erik Henriksen from the Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, hosted this Saturday Science Lecture. In 1922, Arthur Compton carried out seminal x-ray scattering experiments in the basement of Eads Hall at Washington University in St. Louis. The results of this work were groundbreaking: light was clearly shown to have particle-like aspects, providing the first firm experimen...
Quantum Matter: From Consequences of Locality to Parastatistical Particles
Переглядів 101Рік тому
Kaden Hazzard from Rice Center for Quantum Materials, Rice University presented this seminar on September 29, 2022. Understanding quantum many-body systems is a major goal across physics, but we often must resort to severe approximations. Exact results, though rare, give powerful insights. I will describe our progress on two fronts: rigorous bounds on observables, and new exactly solvable model...
New Probes of New Physics in the Multi-messenger Era
Переглядів 65Рік тому
Bhupal Dev from Washington University in St. Louis will be presented this colloquium. There is ample empirical evidence that the so-called Standard Model of particle physics is an incomplete theory. However, despite decades of theoretical and experimental efforts, the nature of new physics beyond the Standard Model and its associated energy scale remain unknown. It is therefore essential to hav...
Compton Centennial Lecture with Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek on Photons and Vision
Переглядів 4802 роки тому
Compton Centennial Lecture with Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek on Photons and Vision
Topological Electrostatics
Переглядів 1022 роки тому
Topological Electrostatics
Inertia of Magnetization in Ferromagnets
Переглядів 1982 роки тому
Inertia of Magnetization in Ferromagnets
Emergent Dynamics in High Throughput Biological Data
Переглядів 742 роки тому
Emergent Dynamics in High Throughput Biological Data
The Fascinating Quantum World of One- and Two-dimensional Materials
Переглядів 2852 роки тому
The Fascinating Quantum World of One- and Two-dimensional Materials
Fractionalized Superconductors and Induced Topological Orders
Переглядів 1622 роки тому
Fractionalized Superconductors and Induced Topological Orders
Cosmic Forensics Using Presolar Stardust
Переглядів 1342 роки тому
Cosmic Forensics Using Presolar Stardust
Information, Physics, and Machine Learning
Переглядів 3112 роки тому
Information, Physics, and Machine Learning
Heat Pumps and Downdrafts: MHD Simulations of Jets in Clusters of Galaxies
Переглядів 562 роки тому
Heat Pumps and Downdrafts: MHD Simulations of Jets in Clusters of Galaxies
Interplay of Topology and Geometry in Fractional Quantum Hall Liquids
Переглядів 1532 роки тому
Interplay of Topology and Geometry in Fractional Quantum Hall Liquids
Explaining How the Solar System Got So Weird
Переглядів 4262 роки тому
Explaining How the Solar System Got So Weird
Strong Coupling and Extreme Anisotropy in Infrared Polaritonic Media
Переглядів 5492 роки тому
Strong Coupling and Extreme Anisotropy in Infrared Polaritonic Media
Is the Number 312132 Interesting?
Переглядів 2082 роки тому
Is the Number 312132 Interesting?
The Fast Radio Sky
Переглядів 1662 роки тому
The Fast Radio Sky
Fast Radio Bursts
Переглядів 3482 роки тому
Fast Radio Bursts

КОМЕНТАРІ

  • @jjer125
    @jjer125 2 місяці тому

    good talk :)

  • @xelgodis80085
    @xelgodis80085 6 місяців тому

    Your title feels like Astrology, but the topics are pretty academically sound.

    • @DerekDavis213
      @DerekDavis213 5 місяців тому

      Academically sound? Seriously? Pluto is in our own backyard, and the best earth based telescopes cannot image it clearly. Neither can Hubble or James Webb scopes either. But then astronomers talk about 'exoplanets' many light years away? Pure fantasy and speculation! And when a PhD astrophysicist says anything, *nobody* outside of his priesthood can challenge him.

  • @geoffgeoff143
    @geoffgeoff143 10 місяців тому

    Just like Moon, once humans visit Mars, there will also be water bottles. The first thing out of the lunar landing module was a bag of garbage. Mars aready has old cars pzrked in the front yard. Space agencies should be made to take away their garbage.

  • @josephinflorida
    @josephinflorida Рік тому

    Great information. Needs to be edited down to information and less Zoom conversations. Thanks. I’d be glad to help.

  • @Joe-ym6bw
    @Joe-ym6bw Рік тому

    This guy makes me nervous

  • @719LifeStyle
    @719LifeStyle Рік тому

    My great grandfather

  • @jefferydrake8641
    @jefferydrake8641 Рік тому

    NOT BAD! You need S M Zeus!!!

  • @mr_sandiego
    @mr_sandiego Рік тому

    Wonderful talk. Answered a lot of my questions about optics and light.

  • @edthoreum7625
    @edthoreum7625 Рік тому

    9:30 AIM; angry gas Giants & hot super earths 10:30 pebbles to planetesimals 18:40 SILICATE, H2O, Snow/ CO 19:50 meteorite isotope dichotomy

  • @edthoreum7625
    @edthoreum7625 Рік тому

    15:00 earth formation,200mya 17:30 37:00 AL 26 short lived radionuclides

  • @physicsdemonstrations2426

    It would be a good idea to have a link of those publications in the description.

  • @greenvale6888
    @greenvale6888 Рік тому

    Nice talk. Thanks.

  • @greenvale6888
    @greenvale6888 Рік тому

    Disappointing talk. Wilczek, trying to justify his reason for being in this lecture series, makes an absurd rationalization that Compton worked with photons...so any topic concerning photons should be fair game. He then goes on to give a pretty boring talk on color blindness. He deserved a Nobel prize for his work on the strong force, but the current work he presents is pretty mundane.

  • @greenvale6888
    @greenvale6888 Рік тому

    I also want to say that Professor Ogilvie's talk was wonderful. Thank you for the informative and entertaining talk!

  • @greenvale6888
    @greenvale6888 Рік тому

    At the 1:11 mark in the video, the lecturer mentions talking to a former professor at Wash U that had AHC's grandson in his class. Well, AHC had two grandsons. One, Peter, attended Wooster University, and the other, John, attended Carlton and Stanford. Arthur's brother, Wilson, did have a grandson who attended Wash U.

  • @luklopskywalk
    @luklopskywalk 2 роки тому

    the audio quality SUCKS.

  • @leonnoel3116
    @leonnoel3116 2 роки тому

    This is the 100 clicks content I need

  • @zoharnussinov5138
    @zoharnussinov5138 2 роки тому

    A minor added side note for emphasis and completeness: As I explained in the lecture, the entropy change is the ratio of heat provided in a reversible process (which we label as "delta Q_{rev}") divided by the temperature T. Given one of the examples that I gave, I should perhaps quickly explain and note that more generally (i.e., for both irreversible and reversible processes), the change in the entropy between the initial and final states is greater than or equal to the sum (or integral) of the change in heat (delta Q) divided by the temperature T. That is, the entropy change is bounded from below by the net sum of ((delta Q)/T) between the initial and final states (a consequence of a relation known as the Clausius inequality). For general closed systems (whether reversible or irreversible), no heat may come into the system (delta Q =0) and it thus follows that the change in entropy as the system evokes in time cannot be negative- i.e., the entropy may only increase or stay the same. As mentioned in the talk, this is the common form of the second law of thermodynamics. For irreversible processes such as friction (including that of rubbing my hands mentioned in this talk), the change in entropy is greater than the heat generated divided by the temperature. An equality between entropy change and the heat change divided by temperature only holds for the reversible process (and thus as was explained in the talk the change in entropy is equal to (delta Q_{rev}/T)). The important point that I wish to emphasize and reiterate again here is that entropy is a state function that is determined uniquely by the state (its information content) that does not care about the history as to how the state was formed.

  • @Dragrath1
    @Dragrath1 2 роки тому

    Wow the seemingly contradictory results for the nuclear equation of state are quite interesting I would love to see how other measurements compare with a larger sample size. Thanks for sharing your physics Colloquium series Washington University physics department!

  • @jari2018
    @jari2018 2 роки тому

    Sowhy do our single star have a Jupiter instead of a second sun orbiting - I guess a second star would be common but Jupiter uncommon or Brown dwarf .

  • @Dragrath1
    @Dragrath1 2 роки тому

    Interesting talk to get an idea of where the field is currently in exoplanet science. On the question of whether substellar objects form via gravitational collapse or core accretion it is a fascinating ongoing area of discussion though I would argue that one aspect that wasn't really discussed likely because it is outside his area of expertise that could be enlightening for this discussion is the study of objects in our own solar system. There is some potential growing evidence for large planetesimals potentially forming via direct collapse the best evidence to date being the Classical Kuiper belt object visited as New Horizons second trans Neptunian flyby 486958 Arrokoth which appears to show a formation history dominated by very low velocity collisions. Of course there are more ambiguous evidence too such as the comparison of nitrogen isotope ratios between Earth and interstellar dust grains within undifferentiated minor planetesimals which suggest most of Earth's nitrogen likely came from the material that initially formed the Earth with similar results suggesting this may be true for Earth's water as well which if true suggests Earth had to form quickly before it could begin to differentiate. One of the proposals to explain these results is that the Earth and presumably other rocky protoplanets may have formed by instability driven coalescence of astrophysical dust grains within the protosolar nebula which has taken a very interesting light given the recent results of NASA's Insight mission finding evidence that Mars deep interior core is much less differentiated than our models expected. Given that gravity harmonics measurements have found similar results for the two gas giants in our solar system, it may be building a strong case for disk instabilities driving all or nearly all large protoplanet formation, though this is much more ambiguous since models also suggest that highly diffuse cores may be able to arise via dissolution of rocky cores into degenerate(metallic) hydrogen. Thanks for posting your colloquium speaker series online Washington University Department of Physics.

  • @johnhearn4622
    @johnhearn4622 2 роки тому

    Very interesting! You might think of sticking to math, and leaving out the political haha's. That's an area that propaganda and its friend cognitive dissidents can raise their ugly heads.

  • @rexremedy1733
    @rexremedy1733 2 роки тому

    This is a great channel! A hidden gem!

  • @seanwarren9357
    @seanwarren9357 2 роки тому

    Heard recently of the state of matter at the core and have been looking to learn more... The reading I've had the time to enjoy has been interesting, so this should be good. Thanks for the content, I'm a trucker and have alot of time to study but have limitations so this format is great for me. Any chance you have any comments to make about the recent simulations suggesting the superionic state in Earth's core, and how seismic anisotropy applies to that and the content in this video? Here's to your channels birthday soon, and may you have many many more!

  • @jari2018
    @jari2018 2 роки тому

    This was interresting.

  • @maxwellsdaemon7
    @maxwellsdaemon7 2 роки тому

    I like the enthusiasm and clarity of the presentation. One question: In the discussion (around 18:04), the particle orbits are shown going one way (counter clockwise), but if the particle has negative charge, like an electron, then it will go clockwise instead?

  • @aperture266
    @aperture266 2 роки тому

    No sound:(

    • @WUPhysicsDepartment
      @WUPhysicsDepartment 2 роки тому

      Unfortunately, our Zoom recording failed for this lecture, so this is just the PowerPoint presentation.

  • @curiosityzero2151
    @curiosityzero2151 2 роки тому

    Very interesting topic

  • @muneebahmed1848
    @muneebahmed1848 2 роки тому

    This is a really good review of the topic thanks for that

  • @KainenUtt
    @KainenUtt 2 роки тому

    Really fantastic video! It was great to see all of my friends and colleagues in such an uplifting advertisement for our department. Happy physics, everyone!

  • @saharsoumeeh9341
    @saharsoumeeh9341 3 роки тому

    so clear thanks a lot

  • @princeoftheblues
    @princeoftheblues 3 роки тому

    Here is a demon that works! The Second Law is now soundly violated! ua-cam.com/video/u7JDFRz2yfA/v-deo.html

  • @shatiwakaliteke7703
    @shatiwakaliteke7703 3 роки тому

    Thank you so much for this information.