WAPhLS Talk: Lindsay Glesener

This talk will describe the use of student-built small satellites to study X-rays from solar flares.  Solar flares are sudden releases of magnetic energy on the Sun, with a large fraction of that energy going into particle acceleration.  Being relatively nearby, the Sun offers the opportunity to study astrophysical particle acceleration at close range.  This talk will describe current efforts underway at the University of Minnesota to investigate particle acceleration in solar flares using small satellites.  The Small Satellite Research Laboratory is a student-oriented research lab that, in collaboration with mentors at UMN and at other institutions, is building and launching small satellites to study solar flares as well as other astrophysical X-ray sources.  Using this platform, high-energy X-ray scintillators are used for high-sensitivity, high-time-precision measurement of solar flares and will eventually reveal the time scales at which flares accelerate particles. 

This event is brought to you by the Women in Physics and Astronomy as part of the Women in Astronomy and Physics Lecture Series (WAPhLS) speaker series featuring women physicists and astronomers.