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Home , Alex Filippenko, Andrew Siemion, Gemini Planet Imager, Hyron Spinrad, Leuschner Observatory, UGC 9391

1 BERKELEY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY WINTER 2016 Astronomy in the News For full versions of news articles, visit news.berkeley.edu CONTENTS Astromony in the News...... 1 SUPERMASSIVE BLACK LONG-TERM, HI-RES Chair’s Message...... 4 HOLES MAY BE LURKING TRACKING OF ERUPTIONS Getting to know new faculty...... 4 EVERYWHERE IN THE ON ’S MOON IO Faculty awards and highlights...... 5 UNIVERSE OCTOBER 20, 2016–Bob Sanders, Media Retirements...... 6 APRIL 6, 2016–Bob Sanders, Media Relations Relations Update....7 Evening with the ...... 7 A near-record supermassive Jupiter’s moon Io continues to be the discovered in a sparse area of the local volcanically active body in the , Undergrad Symposium...... 7 universe indicate that these monster as documented by the longest series of Student Prizes and Awards...... 8 objects — this one equal to 17 billion frequent, high-resolution observations of Sackler Lecture...... 9 suns — may be more common than the moon’s thermal emission ever obtained. In Memoriam...... 9 once thought, according to UC Berkeley Using near- adaptive on two Astro Nights...... 9 . of the world’s largest — the Upcoming Events ...... 10 Until now, the biggest supermassive black 10-meter Keck II and the 8-meter Gemini Give to Astronomy...... 10 holes — those with masses at or near 10 North, both located near the summit of billion times that of our sun — have been the dormant volcano Maunakea in Hawaii — UC Berkeley astronomers tracked 48 over time, as if one triggered another 500 found at the cores of very large in kilometers away. regions loaded with other large galaxies. volcanic hot spots on the surface over a The newly discovered black hole is in a period of 29 months from August 2013 “While it stretches the imagination to , NGC 1600, in the opposite part of through the end of 2015. Without adaptive devise a mechanism that could operate the sky from the Coma Cluster in a relative optics — a technique that removes the over distances of 500 kilometers, Io’s desert, said lead discoverer Chung-Pei atmospheric blur to sharpen the image — volcanism is far more extreme than Ma, a UC Berkeley professor of astronomy Io is merely a fuzzy ball. Adaptive optics anything we have on and continues and head of the Massive Survey, a study can separate features just a few hundred to amaze and baffle us,” de Kleer said. kilometers apart on Io’s 3,600-kilometer- of the most massive galaxies in the local De Kleer and de Pater discussed their universe with the goal of understanding diameter surface. observations at a media briefing on Oct. how galaxies form and grow supermassive. “On a given night, we may see half a 20 during a joint meeting of the American While finding a gigantic black hole in a dozen or more different hot spots,” said Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences and the European Continued on page 2 Katherine de Kleer, a UC Berkeley graduate student who led the observations. “Of Io’s Congress in Pasadena, hundreds of active volcanoes, we have been California. Papers describing the able to track the 50 that were the most observations have been powerful over the past few years.” accepted for future publication by She and Imke de Pater, a UC Berkeley the journal professor of astronomy and of earth and Icarus. planetary science, observed the heat coming off of active eruptions as well as cooling lava flows and were able to determine the temperature and total power output of individual volcanic eruptions. They tracked their evolution over days, High-resolution image of Io, weeks and sometimes even years. showing hot spots — Loki Patera Black holes bend like a lens, distorting and Amaterasu Patera — visible the stars behind them, as portrayed in this Interestingly, some of the eruptions from Earth only with adaptive simulation. The black center represents the appeared to progress across the surface optics on the ’s largest event horizon of the black hole, from which telescopes, Keck and Gemini. nothing, not even light, can escape. (Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J.WINTER Anderson, and 2016 BERKELEYR. van der Marel ASTRONOMY (STScI) ) 2

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE CAME ON IN THE UNIVERSE? SEPTEMBER 14, 2016–Bob Sanders, Media Relations An experiment to explore the aftermath universe we see today. expand to 350 telescopes, consists of radio of cosmic dawn, when stars and galaxies “The first galaxies lit up and started dishes staring fixedly upwards, measuring first lit up the universe, has received nearly ionizing bubbles of gas around them, and radiation originally emitted at a wavelength $10 million in funding from the National soon these bubbles started percolating of 21 centimeters – the hyperfine transition Science Foundation to expand its detector and intersecting and making bigger and in the hydrogen atom – that has been red- array in South Africa. bigger bubbles,“ said Aaron Parsons, a UC shifted by a factor of 10 or more since it The experiment, an international col- Berkeley associate professor of astronomy was emitted some 13 billion years ago. The laboration called the Hydrogen Epoch of and principal investigator for HERA. researchers hope to detect the boundaries Reionization Array, or HERA, currently has “Eventually, they all intersected and you between bubbles of ionized hydrogen – 19 14-meter (42-foot) radio dishes aimed got this über bubble, leaving the universe as invisible to HERA – and the surrounding at the southern sky near Carnarvon, South we observe it today: Between galaxies the neutral or atomic hydrogen. Africa, and will soon up that to 37. The $9.5 gas is essentially all ionized.“ By tuning the receiver to different million in new funding will allow the array That’s the theory, anyway. HERA hopes for wavelengths, they can map the bubble to expand to 240 radio dishes by 2018. the first time to observe this key cosmic boundaries at different distances or Led by UC Berkeley, HERA will explore milestone and then map the evolution of to visualize the evolution of the the billion-year period after hydrogen reionization to about 1 billion years after bubbles over time. gas collapsed into the first stars, perhaps the . “HERA can also tell us a lot about how 100 million years after the Big Bang, “We have learned a ton about the galaxies form,” Parsons said. “Galaxies are through the ignition of stars and galaxies cosmology of our universe from studies very complex organisms that feed back of the cosmic microwave on themselves, regulating their own background, but those formation and the gas that falls into them, experiments are observing and we don’t really understand how they just the thin shell of light that live, especially at this early time when was emitted from a bunch flowing hydrogen gas ends up as complex of protons and electrons that structures with spiral arms and black holes finally combined into neutral in the middle. The epoch of reionization hydrogen 380,000 years after is a bridge between the cosmology that the Big Bang,” he said. “We we can theoretically calculate from first know from these experiments principles and the we observe that the universe started today and try to understand.” out neutral, and we know UC Berkeley’s partners in HERA are the that it ended ionized, and we University of Washington, UCLA, Arizona are trying to map out how it State University, the National Radio transitioned between those Astronomical Observatory, the University two.” of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts The HERA array in South Africa consisted of “Before the cosmic dawn, Institute of Technology, Brown University, 19 dishes on March 7, 2016, but continues to the universe glowed from the cosmic the University of Cambridge in the UK, the grow, replacing an earlier experiment called microwave background radiation, but there Square Kilometer Array in South Africa and PAPER (small dishes in the background). weren’t stars lighting up the universe,” the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. (Images courtesy of the HERA team) said David DeBoer, a research Other collaborators are the Harvard- in UC Berkeley’s Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in throughout the universe. These first Laboratory. “At some point the neutral Cambridge, Massachusetts, the University brilliant objects flooded the universe hydrogen seeded the stars and black holes of KwaZulu Natal, the University of with light that split or ionized and galaxies that relit the universe and led Western Cape and Rhodes University, all the hydrogen atoms between galaxies to the epoch of reionization.” all in South Africa, and California State into protons and electrons to create the The HERA array, which could eventually Polytechnic University in Pomona.

SUPERMASSIVE, continued from page 1 massive galaxy in a crowded area of the are quite a few galaxy groups the size of Ma and her colleagues will report the universe is to be expected–like running NGC 1600 and its satellites,” Ma said. discovery of the black hole, which is across a skyscraper in Manhattan–it “So the question now is, ‘Is this the tip located about 200 million light-years from seemed less likely they could be found in of an iceberg?’ Maybe there are a lot more Earth in the direction of the the universe’s small towns. monster black holes out there that don’t live Eridanus, in the April 6 issue of the “Rich groups of galaxies like the Coma in a skyscraper in Manhattan, but in a tall journal Nature. Cluster are very, very rare, but there silo somewhere in the Midwestern plains.”

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UNIVERSE EXPANDING FASTER THAN EXPECTED JUNE 2, 2016–Bob Sanders, Media Relations Astronomers have obtained the most our understanding of the universe isn’t precise measurement yet of how fast the complete,” he added. universe is expanding, and it doesn’t agree The cause could be the existence of with predictions based on other data and another, unknown particle — perhaps our current understanding of the an often-hypothesized fourth flavor of of the cosmos. neutrino — or that the influence of dark The discrepancy–the universe is now energy (which accelerates the expansion expanding 9 percent faster than expected– of the universe) has increased over the means either that measurements of the 13.8 billion-year history of the universe. A Hubble Space image of the cosmic microwave background radiation Or perhaps Einstein’s general theory galaxy UGC 9391, one of the galaxies in the are wrong, or that some unknown physical of relativity, the basis for the Standard new survey. UGC 9391 contains the two phenomenon is speeding up the expansion Model, is slightly wrong. types of stars – Cepheid variables and a Type of space, the astronomers say. “This surprising finding may be an 1a – that astronomers used to “If you really believe our number–and we important clue to understanding those calculate a more precise Hubble constant. have shed blood, sweat and tears to get mysterious parts of the universe that Click on the image to see the red circles that our measurement right and to accurately make up 95 percent of everything and mark the locations of Cepheids. The blue “X” understand the uncertainties–then it leads don’t emit light, such as , denotes the location of supernova 2003du, a to the conclusion that there is a problem dark matter and dark radiation,” said the Type Ia supernova. The observations for this with predictions based on measurements leader of the study, Nobel laureate Adam composite image were taken between 2012 and 2013 by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. (Image of the cosmic microwave background Riess, of the Space Telescope Science by NASA, ESA, and A. Riess [STScI/JHU]) radiation, the leftover glow from the Big Institute and Johns Hopkins University, Bang,” said , a UC Berkeley both in Baltimore. Riess is a former UC professor of astronomy and co-author of a Berkeley post-doctoral fellow who worked Space Telescope and the Keck I telescope paper announcing the discovery. with Filippenko. in Hawaii, will appear in an upcoming issue “Maybe the universe is tricking us, or The results, using data from the Hubble of the Astrophysical Journal.

BREAKTHROUGH LISTEN TO SEARCH FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE AROUND WEIRD STAR OCTOBER 25, 2016—Bob Sanders, Media Relations SETI equipment on the planet, experiments. Nothing has been found.” and access to the largest While Siemion and his colleagues are telescopes on the planet,” said skeptical that the star’s unique behavior Andrew Siemion, director of the is a sign of an advanced civilization, they Berkeley SETI Research Center can’t not take a look. They’ve teamed up and co-director of Breakthrough with UC Berkeley visiting astronomer Listen. “We can look at it with Jason Wright and Tabetha Boyajian, greater sensitivity and for a the assistant professor of physics and wider range of signal types than astronomy at Louisiana State University any other experiment in the for whom the star is named, to observe world.” the star with state-of-the-art instruments , which the Breakthrough Listen team recently was created last year with mounted on the 100-meter telescope. Andrew Siemion, Director, Berkeley SETI Research Center funding over 10 years from the Wright is at the Center for and Breakthrough Prize Foundation Habitable Worlds at Pennsylvania State and its founder, internet investor Yuri University. Tabby’s star has provoked so much Milner, won’t be the first to search for Siemion, Wright and Boyajian traveled to excitement over the past year, with intelligent life around this star. speculation that it hosts a highly advanced the Green Bank Observatory in rural West civilization capable of building orbiting “Everyone, every SETI program telescope, Virginia to start the observations, expecting megastructures to capture the star’s I mean every astronomer that has any to gather around 1 petabyte of data over energy, that UC Berkeley’s Breakthrough kind of telescope in any wavelength that hundreds of millions of individual radio Listen project is devoting hours of time can see Tabby’s star has looked at it,” he channels. on the Green Bank to see said. “It’s been looked at with Hubble, it’s “The Green Bank Telescope is the largest if it can detect any signals from intelligent been looked at with Keck, it’s been looked fully steerable radio telescope on the extraterrestrials.“The Breakthrough at in the infrared and radio and high planet, and it’s the largest, most sensitive Listen program has the most powerful energy, and every possible thing you can imagine, including a whole range of SETI Continued on page 9

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From the Chair’s Desk If you have not yet visited New Campbell field cosmology”—the use of nearby who have worked tirelessly to raise Hall, you should: this beautiful, safe, stellar populations to understand the awareness of issues related to gender modern, LEED-certified building, brought formation of stars and galaxies across equity and inclusion through one-on-one to us — on schedule — by the unstinting cosmic time—and has led deep mining interventions, a Department-wide survey, efforts of our previous Department expeditions of and Town Hall discussions. And in our Chair Imke de Pater, has been our and Keck data using statistically Astrophysics Roundtables and Evenings proud and happy home for the past two sophisticated tools that draw on with the Stars programs— years. Here we have enjoyed Summer his intimate knowledge of stellar opportunities to thank our Department Lunches on the 6th floor life-cycles. We are exceptionally generous donors on whom we roof and lounge; slaved away at Astro 120 fortunate that these two brilliant critically depend—we have and 121 in the 5th floor Undergraduate scientists and teachers have showcased, for the first time, Labs; built supercomputers out of paper joined our Department. students and postdocs and clips in Professor Aaron Parsons’s 4th This past year has seen an their world-class research. floor Radio Astronomy Lab; searched for unprecedented degree of Consider coming to one of from the swanky 3rd communication and coordination our monthly Astro Nights floor offices of Breakthrough SETI; carved between administrators, staff, faculty, which exemplify the highest ideals out a new optical instrumentation lab on postdocs, students, and the public in of our University and the Astronomy the 2nd floor for one of our newest faculty advancing our research and teaching Department in particular. Created by our members, Professor Jessica Lu; and taught missions. With our new “Small Council” ever enterprising and supremely self- record numbers of astrophysics majors in meetings (yes, “Game of Thrones” organized graduate students—especial our 1st floor classrooms. makes for instant common ground) that thanks to Carina Cheng and Lea Hirsch— We have welcomed not only Jessica Lu regularly bring together representatives it features free public lectures from but also Dan Weisz to our faculty ranks. from all constituencies, we have faculty, postdocs, and graduate students, Jessica is among that most rarefied worked to open all of Campbell Hall followed by an opportunity to stargaze class of observers, those with extensive to all undergraduate majors; funded using the Treffers rooftop telescope with understanding of the technologies that Department activities from Colloquium enthusiastic and knowledgeable student underlie all astronomical discoveries; Tea to Astro CDS (Career Development guides. I can think of no finer crew for a as such, she is a generalist, ready to Series); and addressed issues ranging voyage of discovery through the Universe, go anywhere in the universe that her from the role of the GRE in graduate and no finer Department to chair. instruments and adaptive optics expertise admissions, to faculty hiring, to the use will take her, from free-floating stellar- policy of the undergraduate research mass black holes to young stars orbiting lab. Drawn from an equally broad cross- Eugene Chiang the Galactic Center. Dan is the premier section of Campbell Hall residents are observer in the blossoming field of “near- the new Astronomy Climate Advisors Getting to Know A Q&A WITH OUR NEWEST MEMBER OF THE ASTRONOMY FACULTY, JESSICA LU You are a professor of astrophysics—how up with new questions to pursue. high-powered real-time computers to would you describe your everyday job? process the wave-front sensor data and Everyday, I have the pleasure of working Some of your areas of expertise include calculate the commands needed to drive with some of the brightest and most adaptive optics and . What do those the to the right shape. capable students and colleagues on mean? Adaptive optics requires a bright “guide” difficult puzzles to help us understand the Have you noticed that stars twinkle? star to measure the irregular wave-fronts universe. I work with computers, statistics, Our Earth’s precious is and when a natural star is not available, we mathematics, and data visualization and I actually quite pesky for astronomers. Our make our own artificial star using a laser read extensively to keep up with research atmosphere is windy and turbulent and to excite a thin layer of neutral sodium going on around the world. While I spend blurs our view of the stars just as a penny atoms, deposited by micro-meteorites, at more time than I would care to admit is blurred at the bottom of a fast-running 90 km above the Earth’s surface. stream. Adaptive optics is a technological writing proposals, managing money, Astrometry is measuring the positions and people, and projects, and running meetings, innovation that removes much of this blurring and enables the largest ground- motions of stars on the sky. Astrometry I still spend at least some time every day in is a very powerful technique; but it is problem solving and creative thinking. based telescopes to deliver images just as sharp as if they were in space. Adaptive extremely difficult to measure precisely What drew you to astronomy? optics requires very fast and low-noise and I spend a lot of time working on new Astronomy is often a visual science and cameras to sense the aberrations in the techniques and methods for improving I have a strong spatial learning style and wave-fronts of light, deformable mirrors astrometry in crowded star fields. awareness. I also like being a modern day that change shape on milli-second explorer and having the freedom to come timescales to correct the wave-front, and Continued on page 5

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JESSICA LU, continued from page 4 Hawaii, equipped with adaptive optics. I to children at young ages. At the university What projects are you working on now? also use the Hubble Space Telescope. level, we can educate ourselves and our My students and I are working on using students (who include the next generation What scientific discovery or advance would of scientists and science educators) on adaptive optics in a number of areas of you like to see in your lifetime? astrophysics. We are looking for free- how to accommodate diverse learning There are many scientific discoveries styles, how to foster inclusion in the floating black holes in our Galaxy using I hope to see in my lifetime including: “astrometric microlensing” where the classroom and research lab, and the understand what black holes really are and benefits to science if we do. black hole’s gravity acts as a lens to bend how they are made, develop a theory of the light of a background star. As a result, star and planet formation that accurately Best things (other than Astro) about being at the background star appears to move in an predicts what we observe in the universe. Berkeley? elliptical pattern on the sky (rather than However, my biggest hope is that we I enjoy living on a coast and I look forward a straight line) and the size of this effect continue to build new telescopes and more to sailing and paddling on the bay, hikes lets us weigh the mass of the lens and advanced instruments as new technology with great water views, and enjoying determine if it is a black hole. We are also often leads to unpredicted discoveries that seafood from the Pacific coast. working on how stars are born in extreme we couldn’t even imagine in advance. environments such as in the most massive What keeps you inspired? star clusters and around the supermassive If you weren’t a professor, what would you be There is so much we don’t know about black hole at the Galactic Center — doing/studying, etc? the universe we live in that it is easy to be environments very different from the In high school, I was a fairly serious inspired! If I need an inspiration boost, neighborhood around the Sun. And we are ballet dancer so I might have taken a very I read a few new science papers, look working on advances in adaptive optics, different path in the arts. I also worked as at some new images from the Hubble including pushing to very large fields of a software engineer in silicon valley for or Keck telescopes, or watch a science- view or improving the quality of science several years prior to graduate school; so fiction movie set in space. I also have a measurements that can be extracted from I would also enjoy working on software young daughter and I am often inspired current adaptive optics systems. infrastructure for science and art. when I talk with her and her friends and classmates about science and see their What/where are the tools you use for your How can we encourage more women to enter excitement. research? the sciences? I use large ground-based telescopes, such We can offer good role models and an as those at the W. M. Keck Observatory in inclusive science-learning environments

Faculty Awards and Highlights Chris McKee is the recipient of the 200+ technical papers and advanced James Graham and Paul Kalas prestigious Russell Lectureship for the AAS efforts at outreach via public lectures, are currently leading one of 16 new (American Astronomical Society). Awarded appearances on informational media NASA funded projects to search for annually, the Russell Lecturer is chosen outlets, and volume of lectures, specifically and characterize more efficiently for on the basis of a lifetime of eminence in those to promote careers in science for exoplanets. UC Berkeley is part of the astronomical research. Professor McKee is underserved youth in the Bay Area. Nexus for System Science honored for his innovative ideas, powerful Dan Weisz has been awarded a Humboldt initiative and will benefit through theoretical insights, and practical models Fellowship to carry out six months of Graham’s involvement as project scientist that have had significant impact on many research at the Max Planck Institute for for the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), areas of astrophysics. Astronomie in Heidelberg, Germany. which can track as they move around their stars. A priority of this Imke de Pater has been named a spring Alex Filippenko was among six UC recipient of the Oort Professorship endeavor will be to focus on the overlap Berkeley faculty to be elected a member of between teams and search techniques in from the Leiden Observatory. The Oort the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professorship is a highly prestigious order to maximize effort and make the international award within the astrophysics Imke de Pater was elected a fellow of the search for habitable planets more efficient. community, named for the Dutch American Geophysical Union (AGU), an Peter Nugent and Alex Filippenko were astronomy and radio astronomy pioneer honor bestowed on AGU members who recipients Supernova Cosmology Project who made significant contributions to our have made significant contributions in the Team Breakthrough Prize. Additionally, understanding of the Milky Way. study of Earth and space science. Alex Filippenko received the High-Z Gibor Basri won the Prize for Mariska Kriek’s latest paper, entitled, “A Supernova Search Team Breakthrough Science Popularization. massive, quiescent, population II galaxy Prize. The goal of the Breakthrough Prizes at a of 2.1” was recently accepted is to celebrate scientists and generate The Sagan prize specifically recognizes for publication in the journal Nature. A interest in the field of science as a career. and encourages researchers who, “have corresponding article was published in They are funded by the Brin Wojcicki contributed mightily to the public New Scientist magazine and can be found Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community understanding and appreciation of on the department’s news page, www. Foundation, the Jack Ma Foundation, and science.” This honor recognizes Basri’s astro.berkeley.edu/news the Milner Foundation.

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Department Welcomes New Faculty Appointments Jessica Lu arrived in our department in Astronomy welcomes Daniel Weisz, summer 2016. Her research specialties who joined the department as Assistant include star and cluster formation, black Professor in July 2016. Dr. Weisz’s research holes, adaptive optics, galactic centers, interests are focused in three broad astrometry, and infrared instrumentation. categories: the lowest mass galaxies over Dr. Lu received her undergraduate degree in cosmic time, the interplay between gas and physics from MIT, and worked as a software stars in galaxies, and the environmental engineer in Silicon Valley for three years sensitivity of the stellar initial mass before returning to academia to pursue her PhD in astronomy function. Weisz received his undergraduate degree from UC and astrophysics from UCLA. She completed research under a Berkeley and his PhD in Astrophysics from University of Millikan Postdoctoral Fellowship at CalTech, and later went on Minnesota. As a Hubble Fellow, at both UC Santa Cruz and the to a postdoctoral position at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. University of Washington, he researched novel techniques to She remained at UH as a faculty member prior to joining the combine spectroscopic and photometric observations of stars, faculty of Astronomy at UC Berkeley. star clusters, and galaxies.

RETIREMENTS Carl Heiles As a faculty member in Astronomy, Basri’s in science. Basri continues to be an After 49 years as a pillar of the research focused on stars, stellar activity, effective instructor and mentor in his post- Astronomy Department, Professor Carl , and low mass objects. He retirement appointment as Professor of Heiles officially retired in June 2015, was an early pioneer and widely recognized the Graduate School. simultaneously stepping down as Director world expert in the study of brown of the Radio Astronomy Lab. During his dwarfs. In 2001, NASA selected the Kepler Leo Blitz tenure on faculty, Professor Heiles was mission, of which Basri served as co-PI, Professor Blitz retired in 2016 after a long a preeminent radio astronomer with to discover extrasolar terrestrial planets, career at Berkeley as an observational broad-reaching interests in interstellar and characterize inner extrasolar planetary astrophysicist, specializing in galaxy matter, particularly in understanding the systems. This mission successfully formation and evolution. His research diffuse interstellar gas and magnetic fields evidenced that planets are very common contributed greatly to the field’s through research and observation of the around stars. understanding of star formation, galactic structure, and galactic dynamics in the 21-cm . In recent years he Appointed VC after an extensive has developed calibration techniques Milky Way and distant galaxies. During his nationwide search, Basri grew Equity 20-year tenure as Professor of Astronomy, for single-dish spectral and polarization & Inclusion from a three-person office measurement. Blitz served as Director of the Radio to a thriving division of over 150 staff, Astronomy Lab (RAL) from 1996 through He was a recipient of the Heineman Prize with over $20 million in annual revenue. 2008. His leadership and work with RAL for outstanding work in astrophysics He spearheaded one of the most was instrumental in the creation of several (1989), the Noyce Prize for Excellence comprehensive initiatives on promoting groundbreaking developments in the field, in Undergraduate Teaching (2002), and diversity through institutional change, including the merging of the Berkeley- is a member of the National Academy of via the UC Berkeley Strategic Plan for Illinois-Maryland (BIMA) millimeter-wave Sciences, the American Academy of Arts Equity, Inclusion and Diversity: Pathway array with the Owens Valley millimeter- and Sciences, and the California Academy to Excellence. In addition to buoying wave array to form the 15-element of Sciences. the Division through the 2008 budget CARMA Combined Array for Research in As Emeritus Professor, Heiles continues crisis (preserving student services and Millimeter-Wave Astronomy in the Inyo his research mapping Galactic hydrogen moving forward on implementation of its Mountains. initiatives), he saw the Division exceed using the Arecibo, Green Bank, and Blitz published 154 articles in refereed Chinese FAST telescopes, and taught the its $40 million fundraising goal. He was instrumental in launching the Haas journals, 80 articles in conference Undergraduate Radio Astronomy Lab proceedings, and 20 popular and semi- course in the spring of 2016--a course he Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society, whose research clusters explore pressing popular articles; edited 6 books; and wrote began with Dr. David Cudaback more than a lab manual for introductory astronomy. 20 years ago that won the Berkeley Campus societal issues related to marginalized populations. In 1991, he was featured in the six-part PBS Educational Initiative Award in 1995. series “The Astronomers.” As Professor of After stepping down in 2015, he was the Graduate School, Blitz will continue to Gibor Basri awarded the Berkeley Citation, campus’ Professor Gibor Basri retired in December mentor and complete research on galaxy highest honor, in recognition of his formation and evolution. 2015 after over 33 years of dedicated service pioneering research, mentorship, and on the UC Berkeley campus. This includes extensive efforts at science education 8 years as Berkeley’s first Vice Chancellor and outreach in the wider community to for Equity and Inclusion. encourage the participation of minorities

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Leuschner Observatory Update The Leuschner Observatory, part of the Astronomy Department’s transit of the planet arsenal of research and teaching equipment, continues to receive (which lasts about 1.5h). attention from its hidden home in the hills above Lafayette, CA. Outside of these lines, A feature article in the July 2015 Lamorinda Weekly was followed we see the “normal” by another short review in the Lafayette Weekly in February 2016, brightness of the star, introducing this wonderful little gem to the community, many of normalized to 1 for visual whom had no idea it sits right in their backyard. purposes. In between the two lines, the star As the department continues to review and map out much appears to dim by about needed upgrades and repairs to the observatory’s infrastructure, 2.5% because the planet, students in the Astronomy 120 lab, taught this roughly 10% bigger semester by Gaspard Duchene, have been than Jupiter, blocks accomplishing great things using the that much of the star. Because of it’s proximity to the Berkeley 30” telescope at Leuschner. Thanks campus and ideal location high above city lights and the fog line, to the hard work and ingenuity of plans are currently underway for various repairs and updates that our lab engineer, Frank Latora, will allow the observatory to continue operating as a hands-on students this semester were able research tool for UC Berkeley astronomy students and possibly as to measure the transit light of an a community resource. One project, already underway, involves exoplanet. upgrading the image feeds that send data from the telescopes In an image captured by student located at Leuschner back to the labs in Campbell Hall on campus. Melissa Marquette, we see the To accomplish this upgrade, lab engineer Frank Latora, along apparent brightness of the with time and effort donated by Gary Brandt of Conco Pumping, nearby Sun-like star HD 189733 replaced several conduit posts that will provide a consistent and in the V band (0.55 micron) over stronger power source between the feed and the domes. the course of a little under 3h, each data point being the average To contribute to the mission of Leuschner, consider a gift to the Student of 12 individual exposures with the Observatory Fund. For more information, please visit the Astronomy Leuschner CCD. The vertical dashed website: http://astro.berkeley.edu/research-facilities. lines mark the beginning and end of the

Guests Attend Evening with the Stars, featuring Alex Filippenko Undergrad Research Symposium The department hosted our spring research papers, have been recognized by Evening with the Stars in March, featuring several major prizes, and he is one of the a lively talk by Alex Filippenko and his world’s most highly cited astronomers. research group. Attendees arrived to He has also won the top teaching partake in cocktails and hors d’oeuvres awards at UC Berkeley and has been while mingling with Astronomy voted the “Best Professor” on campus Department faculty, including Eliot a record 9 times. He has produced five Quataert, Jack Welch, and other notable astronomy video courses with “The Great researchers. Courses,” coauthored an award winning This year’s lecture was focused on our textbook, and appears in numerous increasing knowledge about the origins TV documentaries including about 50 and evolution of the universe, dramatically episodes of “The Universe” series. In July, Astronomy undergraduate students expanding our understanding of such presented their research projects at a topics as supernovae, dark matter, summer symposium held in Campbell dark energy, and gravitational lensing. Hall. The session was an opportunity for Professor Filippenko began with a short students to interact with department introduction explaining efforts underway postdocs, researchers, and faculty and to comprehend how stars explode and to learn more about the varied research how to use them for cosmology, before projects that take place in the department. inviting various members of his group to present their extraordinary results obtained through research. Alex Filippenko is the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences. His accomplishments, documented in about more than 800 Speaker Alex Filippenko talks with guests

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Welcome to our newest Graduate Students The Astronomy community is excited to welcome several new graduate students to the department! FALL 2015 observations and instrumentation. Kareem El-Badry received his BS in Saundra Albers, received her B.S. in Alexander Krolewski, received a B.A. in Astrophysics from Yale University, New Astrophysics from UCLA, Los Angeles, Astrophysics and Physics from Harvard Haven Connecticut. His research interests CA. Her interests are galaxy formation University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He are galaxy formation and evolution, and evolution, adaptive optics, stellar is interested in observational cosmology, cosmology, /star populations. extragalactic astronomy, theoretical formation. Max Genecov, received a B.S in astrophysics. Siyao Jia received her BS in Astrophysics Astrophysics and Non-Fiction Writing Michael Medford, received his B.S. in from Peking University, Beijing, China, Honors in English from Brown Communication, Physics and Theatre from Peoples Republic. Her research interests University, Providence, Rhode Island. His Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. are young stars in our galactic center research interests are in observational He brings an interest in observational within 0.5pc, especially their dynamical astroparticle physics, gamma ray bursts cosmology, specifically dark energy, cosmic structure and stellar populations. and observational cosmology. microwave background and large-scale David Khatami received his BA in Physics Deepthi Gorthi, received her B.A. in structure. from Pomona College, Claremont, CA. Electronics and Electrical Engineering Katherine Suess, received her B.A. in His areas of interest are computational/ & Master of Science in Physics from the Physics from University Colorado Boulder, theoretical astrophysics, galaxy formation, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Boulder, Colorado. Her interests are in and compact objects. Pilani Rajasthan India. She is interested galaxy formation and evolution, cosmology, Kara Kundert received her BS in Honors in radio astronomy instrumentation, dark large-scale structure. Astrophysics, Physics from the University matter, large-scale structure formation. of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Nicholas Kern, received his B.S. in FALL 2016 Michigan. Her research interests are Astronomy and Physics from the Fatima Abdurrahman received her B.S. in cosmology and instrumentation. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, physics, and astronomy, and a B.A in Arabic Edward (Ned) Molter received his BA in Michigan. His interests are in cosmology studies from the University of Maryland, Physics from Macalester College, St. Paul through large-scale structure and College Park, College Park, Maryland. Her Minnesota. His research interests are in galaxy clustering: observational and research interests are hosmology, High- exoplanet , galaxy evolution, theoretical approaches, radio astronomy: energy astrophysics, stellar astrophysics. and .

Spring 2016 Commencement On May 15th 2016 the Departments of PH.D DEGREES • SPRING 2016 to finishing his/her dissertation in Astronomy and Physics held their joint Francesca Fornasini Astronomy or in Physics with preference commencement ceremony in Zellerbach Advisers: John Tomsick and Mariska Kriek to Astronomy —Daniel Lecoanet and Hall. The Department of Astronomy The faint, the poor, and the steady: studies of Josiah Schwab congratulates our 38 undergraduate low-luminosity, metal-poor, and non-pulsating Trumpler Award in recognition of students receiving their A.B. degrees, populations of high-mass X-ray binaries academic excellence and outstanding two graduate students who have record of involvement in the department completed their Master’s, and four PhD Garrett Kent Keating Adviser: Carl Heiles or wider astronomical community— recipients for the 2015-16 academic year. Katherine de Kleer Dr. Xiaowei Zhuang, the David B. Arnold The Undiscovered CO: Charting the Molecular Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard Gas of the Early Universe Outstanding GSI awards—Jake Duncan, University, gave the commencement Aaron Thomas Lee Heidi Fuqua, and Joshua Tollefson speech. Making this year’s Adviser: Chris McKee commencement even more meaningful, Star and Planet Formation Through 2016 UNDERGRAD AWARDS we celebrated our graduates and their Cosmic Time Commencement Speaker— families with a brunch in beautiful Mackenzie Moody Campbell Hall. Prizes and awards were Lauren Michelle Weiss Advisers: Geoff Marcy and Andrew Howard Department Citation for “outstanding announced during brunch – it was a scholarship”— great way to end the academic year! The Masses, Densities, and Orbital Dynamics of Exoplanets Nathanan Tantivasadakarn M.A. DEGREES • FALL 2015 Klumpke-Roberts for outstanding 2016 GRADUATE AWARDS Jesse Wayne Nims scholarly achievement—Kevin Hayakawa Jason Jinfei Wang Uhl Award for outstanding scholarly Wark award for astro majors in excellent achievement by a graduate student close academic standing—Diana Kossakowski

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2016 Sackler Lecture IN MEMORIAM Speaker Mike Brown and the Search for Planet Nine The department hosted its annual Astronomy at the California Institute of Galactic researcher Dr. Sackler Lecture in September, featuring Technology, where he specializes in the Hyron “Hy” Spinrad, Professor Mike Brown from Caltech. discovery and study of bodies at the edge 81, passed away on His mesmerizing talk was centered on of the solar system. Brown received his AB December 7, 2015 in recent evidence suggesting that a massive from Princeton and his MA and PhD from Walnut Creek, CA. body is lurking at the outskirts of our UC Berkeley in 1994. Among his numerous Born in 1934 in Brooklyn, NY, Hyron soon solar system, far beyond the of scientific accomplishments, he is best made his way to California, where he later the known giant planets. This object, known for his discovery of Eris, the most obtained his degree in Astronomy and at a distance approximately 20 times massive object found in the solar system Ph. D at UC Berkeley, accomplishments further than and with a mass in 150 years, which led to the debate and that bookmarked his time in the U.S. approximately 5000 times larger than eventual demotion of from a real Army. He joined the Jet Propulsion Pluto, is the real ninth planet of the solar planet to a . In 2006 he was Laboratory, where he specialized in system. In his lecture, Brown will talk named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most stellar planet atmosphere compositions, about the observation that led his team Influential People. He was inducted into most notably discovering in to the evidence for this Planet Nine and the National Academy of Sciences in 2014. the atmosphere of in 1963. discuss how so massive an object could have been hiding in the outer solar system The Raymond and Beverly Sackler The University of California, Berkeley for so long. Finally, he will discuss the Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy is a free recruited Hyron as an astronomy international effort to pinpoint this newest annual event made possible by an endowment professor in 1964, a position he held member of our planetary family. from Raymond and Beverly Sackler in efforts for the rest of his long career. Hy was known at Cal for his research on Mike Brown is the Richard and Barbara to bring notable speakers to the Berkeley campus. stellar composition, formation and Rosenberg Professor of Planetary evolution of galaxies, and . He was elected to the National Academy of BREAKTHROUGH LISTEN, continued from page 3 Sciences and was honored with the 1986 Heineman Prize for outstanding work in telescope that’s capable of looking at of the data analysis required to pick out astrophysics. 3207 Spinrad was Tabby’s star given its position in the sky,” patterns in the radio emissions. named for him. Even after his retirement Siemion said. “We’ve deployed a fantastic Breakthrough Listen is monitoring many in 2005, Hy never lost his passion for new SETI instrument that connects to other stars using three telescopes that teaching astronomy, delivering lectures that telescope, that can look at many can peer into all segments of the cosmos: in the mid-stages of his illness and gigahertz of bandwidth simultaneously the Parkes Telescope in Australia and the answering questions from anyone who and many, many billions of different radio Green Bank Telescope to search for radio was curious to learn more about the channels all at the same time so we can transmissions, and the Automated Planet subjects he loved. explore the radio spectrum very, very Finder at in California to The Department is grateful for Hy’s years quickly.” search for optical laser transmissions. of never-ending dedication and hard The results of their observations will not work; he will be immensely missed. be known for more than a month, because

Free Monthly Lectures and Star Gazing–Astro Nights! Astro Night is a free stargazing and lecture Trainor, and Director of the Breakthrough event open to the public. The monthly event Listen project, Andrew Siemion. Spring is usually held on the first Thursday of each talks will resume in April 2017—details can month (during select months, as weather be found at: http://astro.berkeley.edu/i/ permits), starting with a lecture and Q&A astro-night. session, followed by guided stargazings using our fleet of telescopes, including our 17-inch roof-top telescope observatory. Members of the astronomy department are on hand to answer your questions and tell you more about the goings-on in Campbell Hall! The fall 2016 semester featured lectures given by Professors Imke de Pater, Aaron Parsons, Eliot Quataert, and Alex Filippenko, as well as Miller Fellow Ryan

WINTER 2016 BERKELEY ASTRONOMY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY 501 CAMPBELL HALL #3411 BERKELEY, CA 94720-3411

UPCOMING EVENTS Evening with the Stars Spring 2017 Cal Day April 16 2017 Commencement May 16, 2017 2017 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy Fall 2017 Astronomy Faculty Roundtable Fall 2017 Astro Night Public Lecture and Star Viewing April 2017; first Thursday of each month Science @ Cal Monthly Lectures 3rd Saturday of each month UC Berkeley location changes each month Visit http://scienceatcal.berkeley.edu

Newsletter Credits: Lochland Trotter, Marissa Dominguez, Eugene Chiang, Robert Sanders Photos: Lea Hirsch, Rayna Helgens, Frank Latora, Gina Spindler

Support Berkeley Astronomy On behalf of the faculty, students, and staff we extend our greatest We invite you to make a gift to any of the following funds, each a thanks to our friends and donors for helping to preserve and enhance critical component in the investment of our future. Visit http://give. the scholarship, teaching, and research excellence of the Berkeley berkeley.edu/#astronomy to make an online gift, or use the enclosed Astronomy Department. envelope. Berkeley Astronomy is home to world-renowned scientists and Student Observatory Fund assists with the purchase and researchers and is universally regarded as one of the top astronomy maintenance of the latest instrumentation and teaching observatories departments in the world. Our award winning faculty and outstanding managed by the Astronomy Department. The fund also provides students are engaged in some of the most fascinating research today– support for the department’s upper-division undergraduate laboratory from studying the relationship between planets and moons in our course - the capstone experience for all astronomy majors. solar system, to discovering new planets, galaxies, and black holes, to Friends of Astronomy Fund supports all facets of the department’s creating a road map for exploring the structure of the Universe. program budget, from research travel for students, to recruitment of As a friend of the department, you already know the important role top faculty, to the day-to-day material needs of the classrooms and private funding has in supporting our endeavors toward excellence. teaching labs. Over the past decade, state funding has continued to decline and the Graduate Student Support Fund directly benefits our students. Astronomy Department has increasingly relied on the generosity of Funding for fellowships is a top priority in the department, as a full our alumni and friends to year fellowship can cost more than $35,000 and will only continue maintain our mission of to increase. Offering student support is one of our best tools for award-winning teaching attracting the brightest and most promising students. and research. Without the support of our extended Thank you for your generosity! family, we would be Did you know–many employers match gifts to UC Berkeley? To discuss unable to maintain our matching or other opportunities to support Astronomy at Berkeley, standard of providing the contact Maria Hjelm, Director of Development and College Relations, best resources for our [email protected]. faculty, researchers and students. GO BEARS!