The March 24th meeting of the RASC Mississauga Centre will feature a talk on supernovae.

Talk Title: Nature’s Supercolliders: Supernova remnants and how they are connected to our galaxy

Speaker: Jennifer West, David Dunlap Institute

The explosion of a star, or supernova, is one of the most extreme events in the universe, responsible for creating the heavy elements essential  for life. The resulting fast moving shock wave, the supernova remnant, produces super high-energy particles called cosmic rays. Understanding the nature of the magnetic fields is crucial to understanding the extreme processes that produce these cosmic rays. This talk will describe my PhD research, which investigates the magnetic fields of supernova remnants and how they are connected to the magnetic field of our Galaxy.

Jennifer is a Postdoctoral Fellow who uses large radio surveys and radio polarimetry to study magnetic fields in supernova remnants and in the Milky Way Galaxy. She is working with Prof. Bryan Gaensler to analyze data from the upcoming POSSUM (Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism) survey using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).

Jennifer is also enthusiastic about astronomy education and outreach and a long time member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). She is the recipient of the International Dark Sky Association’s Dark Sky Defender Award (2011) and the RASC’s Ken Chilton Prize (2010) for her contributions to astronomy education and outreach. Jennifer completed her PhD at the University of Manitoba in 2016, working with Dr. Samar Safi-Harb. She joined Dunlap in September 2016.

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.  

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 until you 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.  Directions

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