Physics & Astronomy Colloquium - Jerry Goldstein, Southwest Research Institute

Title: "Imaging Space Plasmas, and Robotic Exploration of the Solar Systems"

May 26, 2017
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
Wilder 104
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854

Abstract: This colloquium takes a virtual tour of the Solar System, mostly as seen by various techniques to image space plasmas.  First, I introduce and define some basic concepts (planetary magnetospheres, definition of a plasma) and introduce you to the Earth's dynamically-changing space environment.  The tour starts with exciting images of the Sun and solar wind, and the Earth's plasmasphere, and ring current.  I will spend some time showing you several major findings from plasmaspheric imaging and ring current imaging.  We travel next to Jupiter, to see the volcanoes of Io, and listen to the sound of Ganymede's magnetic field. The next stop is Saturn, where imaging enabled perhaps the greatest discovery at Saturn, that a ring of plasma and neutral gas called the E-Ring is created and perpetually replenished by geysers on the southern pole of the moon Enceladus.  I will show you first-ever closeup pictures of a comet, and of the dwarf planet Pluto. Finally, the tour ends with images of the very edge of the Solar System, the intestellar boundary. 

Biography:  Dr. Jerry Goldstein is a Staff Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, and an Adjoint Professor of Physics at the University of Texas San Antonio. Goldstein got his Ph.D at Dartmouth College, where he studied the theory of cavity resonances of the Earth’s magnetosphere, under the guidance of Mary Hudson. At the Southwest Research Institute (since 2003), Dr. Goldstein specializes in the dynamics of inner magnetospheres using global imaging observations from missions such as IMAGE and TWINS, complemented by theory and simulation. Dr. Goldstein is the Science Operations Center lead (2003-present) for the TWINS mission. He is a Fellow of the AGU and received the James B. Macelwane medal “for significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability” in 2006. He has served on multiple NASA and NSF review panels including the Solar-Wind-Magnetosphere interaction panel for the Decadal Survey and as Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research, Space Physics. Dr. Goldstein is author or co-author of ~100 published papers, with over 1700 citations and an h index of 23.

 

Location
Wilder 104
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854