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Astronomy Colloquium
Smith's Cloud: The Most Interesting Hydrogen Cloud in the Local Universe
Date: Tuesday, March 25th
Time: 3:45 pm
Place: 6515 Sterling Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm in 6521 Sterling)
Speaker: Jay Lockman, NRAO
Abstract: In the first part of the talk I will review the capabilities of the new Green Bank 100 meter diameter radio telescope (GBT) and briefly discuss some of the scientific programs to which it has contributed. The main part of the talk will be about Smith's Cloud. This hydrogen cloud has been known since 1963 and is usually classified as a high-velocity cloud, but only recently has its nature become clear through observations with the GBT. It is a coherent mass of gas more than 3x1 kpc in extent, contains more than a million solar masses of hydrogen, and appears to be on a trajectory to cross the Galactic plane in 20-40 Myr. It is now interacting with the gaseous halo of the Galaxy and is in the process of breaking up. It may be the prototype of a gas cloud accreting onto the Milky Way and bringing fresh gas to fuel star formation.
Host: Snezana Stanimirovic
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