Journey to the Sun Live

Monthly heliophysics talks hosted at Southern Illinois University Carbondale on the third Friday of each month at 3pm CT.  Watch and discuss on YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM.

Schedule

Friday, September 27, 2024

NASA’s Fleet of Solar Spacecraft

Location: In person at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Moris Library, Guyon Auditorium.  Watch and discuss on YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM

The Sun impacts many aspects of our daily lives; some of its effects are more obvious, like those on weather patterns and agriculture, while other effects are more subtle, like space weather and auroras.  In order to study the Sun and its interactions with the Earth in more detail, NASA has launched a series of heliophysics spacecraft that focus all their time and energy on studying the Sun and its surrounding environment.  Join us for a tour through some of NASA’s more successful solar probes.  We will talk about the spacecraft themselves as well as some of their more exciting scientific discoveries.

 

Dr. Corinne Brevik is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics and Applied Physics at Southern Illinois University.  She has a B.S. in Physics from Montana State University and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics and Planetary Science from the University of Colorado. Her current areas of research include solar eclipses, terrestrial light pollution, and physics & astronomy education.

Friday, October 25, 2024

The Sun’s Role in the Earth’s Climate

Location: In person at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Moris Library, Guyon Auditorium.  Watch and discuss on YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM

The Earth’s climate is a dynamic system that responds in complex ways to changes in the amount of energy received and lost. Energy received from our Sun is the primary energy input to the system and initiates variations in climate across different timescales. In this talk, we will explore how climate-system processes can alter the climate response, sometimes in surprising ways that are different from what we’d expect.

 

Justin Schoof is the founding Director of the School of Earth Systems and Sustainability and a Professor in the Geography and Environmental Resources Program. He earned graduate degrees (M.S., PhD) from Indiana University and joined the SIU Carbondale faculty in 2006 after a postdoctoral appointment at Florida State University. His teaching and research interests are climate variability and change, with a focus on scale interactions and extremes.

Friday, December 6, 2024

Space Weather

Location: In person at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Moris Library, Guyon Auditorium.  Watch and discuss on YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM

Just as there is weather within our atmosphere (like rain, snow, heat, and wind), space weather can come in the form of radio blackouts, solar radiation storms, and geomagnetic storms caused by disturbances from the Sun.  Unlike terrestrial weather events, like a hurricane, space weather has the potential to impact not only the United States, but wider geographic regions. These complex events can have significant economic consequences and have the potential to negatively affect numerous sectors, including communications, satellite and airline operations, manned space flights, navigation and surveying systems, as well as the electric power grid.  This talk addresses what drives space weather, what its effects are, and what efforts are being made to predict it. 

Dr. Margaret “Peggy” Hill, received her Bachelor’s degree in physics at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.  She taught physics and physical science at the high school and junior high level for 9 years before returning to school to get her PhD in condensed matter physics at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale studying magnetic materials.  She joined the faculty of Southeast Missouri State University in 2000 where she taught courses in physics, astronomy, and science education.  In 2017 she and Dr. Mike Rogers became lead volunteers for Citizen CATE Team-040, one of the 68 national sites dedicated to taking photographs during totality to study the time evolution of the sun’s corona.  She was a State Coordinator and again a Team Lead for CATE 2024 team 017 based in McLeansboro, IL, photographing the sun’s corona in polarized light, during the April 8 total solar eclipse. 

Friday, January 31, 2025

TBA

Friday, Febuary 28, 2025

TBA

Friday, March 28, 2025

Impact of a Solar Eclipse on a Bee Colony

Location: In person at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Moris Library, Guyon Auditorium.  Watch and discuss on YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM

Steven Still, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University School of Agricultural Systems and Education. Dr. Still was born in Champaign, Il and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He completed his BS in agriculture with a minor in agriculture education at The Ohio State University before teaching high school agriculture for eight years in central Ohio, during which he earned his M.Ed. He earned his MS in crop sciences and his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Illinois.

Friday, April 25, 2025

Understanding Sun Exposure Risks in Military Personnel: A Public Health Perspective.

Location: In person at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Moris Library, Guyon Auditorium.  Watch and discuss on YouTube Live @NASASolarSTEAM

Justin McDaniel, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the School of Human Sciences at Southern Illinois University. He also has a joint appointments in the Dale and Deborah Smith Center for Alzheimer’s Research and trEatment (CARE) and the Department of Population Science and Policy in the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.  His scholarly interests center on social determinants of health among military veterans.