Directions to the FORUM at MOORPARK COLLEGE

The Ventura County Astronomical Society (VCAS) will hold it's monthly membership meeting on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 7:15 PM at the Forum Auditorum, on the campus of Moorpark College -- 7075 Campus Road, Moorpark CA 93021

The speaker will be Dr. Sebastian Honeig, DFG Fellow of Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tonights session: "Feeding the monsters in the nuclei of galaxies”

Within the recent decade it became clear that almost all galaxies host a super-massive black hole in their centers. These "monsters" are billion times more massive than our sun and dominate the nuclear region of their host galaxies. But how could they grow that heavy?

We know that in some galaxies the immediate vicinity of the black hole is so bright that it outshines the whole galaxy. The only process that can release this much energy in a very small region is accretion of mass of the supermassive black hole. Therefore, in order to understand the monster in the heart of a galaxy we have to watch it growing. This, however, is a challenging task given their enormous distances. Tonight, Dr. Honeig will present some of the current days' efforts to zoom into the nuclei of galaxies to get an idea of how supermassive black holes grow.

Dr. Honeig studied physics at university in the beautiful town of Heidelberg (Germany), which is, judging by the number of tourists, well-known to many Americans for its charming old town with its traditional university of more than 600 year of age. After getting his diploma in 2004 (equivalent to M.Sc. in the US), he moved on to the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn where he worked on his PhD thesis in the infrared interferometry group (PhD January 2008).

Dr. Honeig stayed at the MPIfR for his first postdoc from 2007 to January 2010 when he received a fellowship from the German Science Foundation which allowed him to study abroad. He chose UCSB as his host institution and moved there in February 2010. Dr. Honeig's primary work focuses on active galactic nuclei, but also does work on comets.

On July 22, 2002 Dr. Honeig discovered a new 11-12mag comet in the constellation of Pegasus using his 10“ MEADE LX200 telescope. At that time, the comet was approximately 2‘ in size with a notable 1‘ motion in 20 min towards North. In early August, comet Hönig passed Earth at a distance of 0.65 AU and became a circumpolar object for mid-northern latitudes. The comet increased its brightness rapidly during the weeks after discovery. On August 22, the comet reached a maximum brightness of 7 mag at a heliocentric distance of 1.1 AU. For more information about Dr. Honeig's research, click here to visit his website.

The public is invited to attend and learn the enjoyment of amateur astronomy with these educational and enjoyable speakers.