LASP Science Seminars

LASP seminars are generally held every Thursday at 4:00 PM on Zoom and in person.
If you are interested in attending, please contact Heather Mallander to be added to the mailing list.

We are currently seeking speakers for our Spring 2024 seminar series. If you or a colleague would like to give a seminar, please contact one of our Science Seminar Committee members:

Sonal Jain (Planetary)
Yi Qi (Space Physics)
David Wilson (Solar/Stellar)
Chihoko Cullens (Earth Atmospheres)

Upcoming Science Seminars

September 19, 2024

The LAPYUTA mission: Life-environmentology, Astronomy, and PlanetarY Ultraviolet Telescope Assembly

Fuminori Tsuchiya

(Tohoku University)

Ultraviolet spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools to cover a wide range of scientific fields, from planetary science to astronomy. We will introduce a future UV space telescope, LAPYUTA which is selected as a...

Past Science Seminars

September 12, 2024

Detectability and chemistry of hydrocarbons in interstellar and planetary environments

Jordy Bouwman

(LASP, CU)

Hydrocarbons of all sorts and sizes are found throughout the various stages of star and planet formation. For example, from infrared spectroscopic observations we have learned that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous in space. The...

September 5, 2024

The Net Radiative Effect of the “Clear-Sky” Near Clouds

Eshkol Eytan

(NOAA)

Clouds strongly modulate the radiative transfer in the atmosphere by inducing large deviations from clear-sky fluxes. This implies that the radiative effect of clouds (CRE) on their surroundings, even if small relative to CRE, will be large compared to clear-sky...

August 29, 2024

The Enceladus-Exoplanet Connection: How Molecular Hydrogen on Ocean Worlds Could Support Life

Christopher Glein

(Southwest Research Institute)

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a subsurface ocean that erupts into space, forming a plume. We sampled the plume using the Cassini spacecraft and found that it contains materials that can fuel methane formation, namely CO2 and H2....

August 15, 2024

XUV-Driven Mass Loss from Hot Saturns

Daniel Thorngreen

(Johns Hopkins University)

It is now well-established that mass loss processes play an important role in sculpting the population of Neptunes and sub-Neptunes. For higher-mass planets, while XUV-driven mass loss has been both theoretically predicted and observed, it has...

August 7, 2024

Chasing the eclipse 2024: extending totality via coordinated observations from ground and air

Amir Caspi

(Southwest Research Institute)

Total solar eclipses are spectacular astronomical phenomena that allow unique studies of the solar corona. While observing windows at fixed sites are only a few minutes long, “chasing” the Moon’s shadow enables longer observing periods, enhancing...