The June 19th meeting of the RASC Mississauga Centre will feature a talk on the quasars - the strange energetic objects of deep space.

Speaker: Dr. Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo

Title: Understanding Quasars (and their extremely(!) high velocity outflows)

A Quasar

Quasars are among the most luminous objects in the sky. These very energetic regions lie at the center of massive galaxies and powered by a super-massive black hole. While it has been found that there is a correlation between the mass of these super-massive black holes and the mass of the surrounding galaxies, the co-evolution of galaxies and quasars is barely understood. Outflows launched from the vicinity of super-massive black holes are a key piece in this puzzle, possibly linking the small and the large scale phenomena. We have discovered that some of this gas is outflowing at very high speeds (up to 216 million km/h!). To better characterize these outflows, our group is conducting an encompassing multi-wavelength study of quasar outflows. All these results have implications for current theoretical models and will help us better understand quasars. 

Dr Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo

Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo, from Spain, studied at the Instituto of Astrofisica de las Islas Canarias, did my PhD at the University of Florida, a postdoctoral position at the Pennsylvania State University, another postdoctoral position at York University, I was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Toronto and I am currently back to YorkU as a Research Associate. I love astronomy (obviously!), music and touring the city.

The meeting will be held from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2082 in the William Davis Building. The meeting is open to the public and is free.    

Directions: Enter off of Mississauga Road. Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of theDavis Building. Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs untilyou reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator,follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the mainfloor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room. 

Post meeting plans: we usually continue the discussion post-meeting at a local bar – please join us!