Exploring Our Galactic Neighborhood

It is important to know what is going on in your neighborhood, and that is also true of the immediate vicinity of our Sun in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Sun, along with our nearest stellar neighbors, is moving through giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Indeed, there is an interaction zone where the outward moving winds of stars push against the inward pressure of the surrounding interstellar gas. This interaction can even have important implications for the Earth and other planets. Prof. Redfield will describe what kind of astronomical objects reside in our Galactic neighborhood, how we know they are there, and why it is so important to learn all we can about the astronomical objects that share our small corner of the Galaxy.

Speaker: Seth Redfield, Wesleyan University