Cafe Scientifique - A Sharper Image: Seeing Colliding Galaxies with Adaptive Optics

Adaptive Optics is a technology that detects and corrects changing distortions in optical systems. It has been applied to great effect during the past decade to correct astronomical telescopes for blurring due to turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. This talk will describe how Adaptive Optics works, and how it is helping us to learn about colliding galaxies and their black holes, as well as outflows from the cores of nearby galaxy mergers.

Dr. Claire Max - Dr. Claire Max is a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, and Director of the University of California Observatories. She is a leader in the field of Adaptive Optics, a technology that removes blurring due to atmospheric turbulence so that images from the ground can be as clear as if they were taken from space. She uses Adaptive Optics to study the fate of supermassive black holes in the core of colliding galaxies.

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Building on its great success outside the United States, Café Scientifique Silicon Valley is the first such Café on the West Coast. We meet monthly to discuss a variety of science topics.