MEDIA RELEASE

Dr Glen Petitpas (Submillimeter Array) will give a public “AstroTalk” on the UH Hilo campus on Friday, May 22. Petitpas’ talk, scheduled for 7:15 pm at the UCB Room 100, is entitled “Beyond the Eyeball: Come See What You Are Missing”

Most people who love astronomy, fell in love with the beautiful photographs taken at optical wavelengths. As it turns out, many of the spectacular nearby reflection nebulae and dusty spiral arms in distant galaxies which often grace the covers of astronomy magazines, are actually acting to obscure some of the more fascinating astrophysical phenomena, such as the birth of stars, and massive black holes. In this talk Petitpas will demonstrate how optical light can only contribute a very small portion of our understanding of the universe, and will show several examples of how the current generation of telescopes operating at wavelengths invisible to the human eye can peer deeper into regions completely obscured at optical wavelengths. Petitpas will also discuss how upcoming telescopes (which are so large and expensive they are global collaborations) will change the way astronomers study the universe.

The free lecture is sponsored by UH Institute for Astronomy and the UH Hilo Physics and Astronomy Department. For more information, please visit http://astroday.net/AstroTalk63.html or call IfA Outreach at 932-2328.