News Release

ESCC Campus

Cerro Coso to Host Guest Lecturer in Astronomy Series

November 27, 2007

Dr. Andrew West from University of California, Berkeley and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) near Big Pine, CA will be giving a talk at the Eastern Sierra College Center, Bishop Campus, 4090 W. Line St., Bishop at 4 pm. Thursday Nov. 29, Rm 176. The talk is entitled "Big Science from Little Stars."

M dwarfs (or red dwarfs) are the smallest stars in the Galaxy that can still fuse hydrogen. They are 10 times less massive, twice as cool and over 1000 times dimmer than the Sun. Yet despite their diminutive physical properties, M dwarfs make up ~75% of all of the stars in the Milky Way and have lifetimes that are measured in trillions of years (longer than the age of the Universe). These little stars have intense stellar flares and strong magnetic fields that may have important consequences for the habitability of planets that orbit them. Current astronomical surveys have allowed astronomers to construct samples that contain millions of M dwarfs - more than any other type of star. I will discuss the current state of M dwarf science and demonstrate that "cool" stars play an important role in our understanding of stellar physics and the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy.

West grew up in Northern California (Mendocino County) and graduated from Ukiah High School. He attended Haverford College in PA where he double majored in astronomy and physics. After college, Andrew attended graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle where he earned a PhD in 2005. West is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Radio Astronomy Lab at UC Berkeley. His research interests are quite varied. The two main questions that motivate his work are: 1) How does global star formation proceed in galaxies in response to the physical conditions of the entire system?; and 2) What are the physics that control the magnetic activity in fully convective low- mass, dwarf stars? West is a member of the CARMA interferometer team and has spent some time over the past 2 years helping to commission the new array located at Cedar Flat (above the Owens Valley).

The public is cordially invited to attend.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Joann Handeland, Director of Public Information (760) 384-6230