Sep 7, 2012
Our guest today is Patrick Hall who joins Justin Trottier at The
Star Spot to discuss one of the most energetic, myserious and
ancient of phenomana in our universe: quasars. Hall shares his
insights into the role quasars played in the evolution of the
cosmos and galaxy formation, the mechanisms and physics of their
behaviour, and the rare occurence of double quasars. He also
describes the eventual fate of our Milky Way Galaxy to merge with
Andromeda and produce quasars of our own. Finally, they focus on
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and explore the tremendous
opportunities afforded researchers by the growing scale and scope
of large sky surveys.
In Current in Space we introduce a cryptic new start-up company
Uwingu seeking to fundraising and raise public engagement in space
exploration, comment on the enduring fascination with the concept
of a space elevator, and pay tribute to one of the greatest
explorers of our time - Neil Armstrong.
About Patrick Hall
Patrick Hall received his PhD in astronomy from the University of Arizona, worked at Princeton University as its Observatory Research Associate and is currently associate professor at York University. He is an expert in quasars and active galactic nuclei. He’s received a number of National Science and Engineering Research Council grants as well as the ontario early research award for studies on disks of matter orbiting supermassive black holes. Hall participates in analyzing data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project that, among many many other things, resulted in the discovery of an asteroid that now bears his name Pathall.