228th AAS San Diego, CA – June, 2016 Meeting Abstracts Session Table of Contents 100 – Welcome Address by AAS President Photoionized Plasmas, Tim Kallman (NASA 301 – The Polarization of the Cosmic Meg Urry GSFC) Microwave Background: Current Status and 101 – Kavli Foundation Lecture: Observation 201 – Extrasolar Planets: Atmospheres Future Prospects of Gravitational Waves, Gabriela Gonzalez 202 – Evolution of Galaxies 302 – Bridging Laboratory & Astrophysics: (LIGO) 203 – Bridging Laboratory & Astrophysics: Atomic Physics in X-rays 102 – The NASA K2 Mission Molecules in the mm II 303 – The Limits of Scientific Cosmology: 103 – Galaxies Big and Small 204 – The Limits of Scientific Cosmology: Town Hall 104 – Bridging Laboratory & Astrophysics: Setting the Stage 304 – Star Formation in a Range of Dust & Ices in the mm and X-rays 205 – Small Telescope Research Environments 105 – College Astronomy Education: Communities of Practice: Research Areas 305 – Plenary Talk: From the First Stars and Research, Resources, and Getting Involved Suitable for Small Telescopes Galaxies to the Epoch of Reionization: 20 106 – Small Telescope Research 206 – Plenary Talk: APOGEE: The New View Years of Computational Progress, Michael Communities of Practice: Pro-Am of the Milky Way -- Large Scale Galactic Norman (UC San Diego) Communities of Practice Structure, Jo Bovy (University of Toronto) 308 – Star Formation, Associations, and 107 – Plenary Talk: From Space Archeology 208 – Classification and Properties of Young Stellar Objects in the Milky Way to Serving the World Today: A 20-Year Variables, Binaries and White Dwarfs and 309 – Bridging Laboratory & Astrophysics: Journey from the Jungles of Guatemala to a Stellar Evolution Atomic, Nuclear, & Particles Physics in Network of Satellite Remote Sensing 209 – The Milky Way and Dwarf Galaxies X-rays Facilities Around the World, Daniel Irwin 210 – Bridging Laboratory & Astrophysics: 310 – The Limits of Scientific Cosmology: (NASA) Planetary Physics in the mm and X-rays The Way Forward 109 – Relativistic Astrophysics, Gravitational 211 – The Limits of Scientific Cosmology: 311 – Surveys, Computation, and Lenses & Waves, and CMB Historical and Cosmological Context Instrumentation 110 – Galaxy Clusters 212 – Plenary Talk: The Ocean World 312 – Plenary Talk: Things That Go Bump in 111 – Bridging Laboratory & Astrophysics: Enceladus, Linda Spilker (JPL) the Night: The Transient Radio Sky, Dale Molecules in the mm I 213 – Plenary Talk: MAVEN Observations of Frail (NRAO) 112 – Astronomy Education for All: The 2017 Atmospheric Loss at Mars, Shannon Curry 314 – AGN, QSOs, and Blazars Poster Eclipse, Accessibility and NASA (UC Berkeley) Session 113 – Small Telescope Research 214 – Astronomy Education: In and Out of 315 – Cosmology and CMB Poster Session Communities of Practice: Student-Centered the Classroom, for All Ages, and Around the 316 – Extrasolar Planets Poster Session Communities of Practice Globe Poster Session 317 – Computation, Surveys, and Data Poster 114 – Plenary Talk: The Brightest Pulses in 215 – Galaxies Poster Session Session the Universe, Maura McLaughlin (WVU) 216 – Instrumentation: Space Missions 318 – Molecular Clouds, Interstellar 115 – Plenary Talk: The Galaxy Zoo, Kevin Poster Session Medium, and Dust Poster Session Schawinski (ETH Zurich) 217 – Extremely Cool Stars: Surveys and 319 – Star Formation, Associations, and 116 – Laboratory Astrophysics Poster Session Individual Stars Poster Session Stellar Objects Poster Session 117 – The NASA K2 Mission Poster Session 218 – Variable Stars, Binary and Multiple 320 – Stellar Atmospheres and Circumstellar 118 – Evolution of Galaxies and Galaxy Stellar Systems, and White Dwarfs Poster Disks Poster Session Clusters Poster Session Session 400 – AGN, QSOs, and Blazars 119 – The Sun and the Solar System Poster 219 – Neutron Stars and Supernovae Poster 401 – Extrasolar Planets: Detection Session Session 402 – Blacks Holes and Supernovae 120 – Instrumentation: Ground Based or 300 – 2015 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize 403 – Cosmology and CMB Airborne Poster Session Lecture: The Elephant in the Room: Effects 404 – Extrasolar Planets: Formation and 121 – Observatory Site Protection and Light of Distant, Massive Companions on Dynamics Pollution Poster Session Planetary System Architectures, Heather 405 – Molecular Clouds, HII Regions, and 200 – LAD Plenary Talk: X-ray Spectra and Knutson (CIT) Dust 1 102.02 – K2 Extra-Galactic and Supernova Studies 100 – Welcome Address by AAS President and C17 Meg Urry I will give an overview of the Kepler Extra-Galactic survey - a program using Kepler to search for supernovae, active galactic nuclei, and other transients in galaxies. To date we have found 17 supernova, 101 – Kavli Foundation Lecture: Observation and with 3 more years (through 2018) planned, including the forward-facing C17, we hope to discover 20 - 30 more SN. The of Gravitational Waves, Gabriela Gonzalez 30-minute cadence of Kepler has reveales subtle features in the light- (LIGO) curves of these supernova not detectable with any other survey, including, shock break-out in a large number of SN, improving our 101.01 – Observation of Gravitational Waves understanding of supernova progenitors. We can also search in On September 14 2015, the two LIGO gravitational wave detectors in nearby galaxies for very fast and faint transients, filling in a Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana registered a nearly previously unaccessible parameter space. Lastly, the precision data of simultaneous signal with time-frequency properties consistent with any discovered type Ia supernova combined with ground based data gravitational-wave emission by the merger of two massive compact can dramatically improve our use of type Ia for determining objects. Further analysis of the signals by the LIGO Scientific distances and measuring the properties of dark energy. Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration revealed that the gravitational waves detected by LIGO came from the merger of a binary black hole Author(s): Bradley E. Tucker1, Peter M. Garnavich5 , Armin (BBH) system approximately 420 Mpc distant (z=0.09) with Rest243 , Edward J. Shaya , Daniel Kasen constituent masses of 36 and 29 M_sun. Institution(s): 1. Australian National University, 2. STScI, 3. UC I will describe the details of the observation, the status of Berkeley, 4. University of Maryland, 5. University of Notre Dame ground-based interferometric detectors, and prospects for future Contributing team(s): The Kepler Extra-Galactic Survey observations in the new era of gravitational wave astronomy. 102.03 – K2 Microlensing and Campaign 9 1 Author(s): Gabriela Gonzalez Campaign 9 of K2 will observe a contiguous 3.7 deg^2 region of the Institution(s): 1. Louisiana State University Galactic bulge in order to search for microlensing events and measure microlens parallaxes. It will also perform targeted follow-up of approximately 50 microlensing events spread throughout the 102 – The NASA K2 Mission Kepler focal plane. Parallax measurements are a critical ingredient This Special Session will highlight science from the K2 mission for measurements of both the lens mass and distance, which during its first two years of operation. A short "Town Hall" contribute to our understanding of the formation of cold exoplanets, presentation by the project will be followed by science talks featuring and the formation of planets as a function of Galactic environment. community members and used to highlight the many types and Additionally, as the first un-targeted, space-based microlensing breadth of K2 science. Additionally, planning for the K2 mission over survey, K2C9 offers us the first chance to measure the masses and the next two years of operation including soliciting community input kinematics of a large population of free-floating planet candidates, will be discussed as well. whose large abundance has been a puzzle since their discovery. 102.01 – The NASA K2 Mission: Exploring Planets, I will review the scientific goals of the K2C9 survey, which will be Stars, and Beyond well underway, and report on the ongoing activity of the K2 The NASA Kepler mission launched in 2009 and observed a single Campaign 9 Microlensing Science Team and the wider microlensing region of the Galaxy for four years. During its lifetime, Kepler community, with a focus on the progress that has been made towards discovered thousands of transiting extrasolar planets and also analyzing K2 data in crowded fields. revolutionized the field of stellar astrophysics thanks to its ability to produce extremely high precision measurements of the brightness of Author(s): Matthew Penny1 stars. After a second reaction wheel failed on the Kepler spacecraft in Institution(s): 1. Ohio State University 2013, the NASA K2 mission was born. K2 has been observing a variety of astrophysical targets in different fields along the ecliptic in 102.04 – DAVE: Discovery and Vetting of K2 ~80 day campaigns since early 2014. While K2 has no single mission Exoplanets goal, the science produced from the K2 mission relates to time NASA's K2 mission is capable of finding planets as small as the Earth variable observations of Solar System objects, extrasolar planets, star around bright, nearby stars. These targets are well-suited for JWST clusters, supernovae, and more. With about two years of scientific follow-up to study their density and atmospheric composition. Such observations completed, K2 has already extended the legacy of the observations will yield a better understanding of the