"For years our program has aimed not only to present the progress of astronomy, but to give an opportunity to our members to hear, see, and visit with eminent scientists who actually are contributing to the ever-widening horizon of our knowledge of the universe. ”
1947 CAS brochure by Dr. Jason J. Nassau
The Cleveland Astronomical Society
LECTURE NEWS: MEETINGS:
2024 - 2025
The Cleveland Astronomical Society Lecture Series
has announced the lineup of speakers for the 103rd Season.
LECTURE: Topic of the recent JWST discovery of early galaxy foundation
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. J. Christopher Mihos is currently Professor of Astronomy, at CWRU, 2006- , received his PhD in Astronomy, from the University of Michigan, 1992, and his BS in Astronomy, from the California Institute of Technology, 1987. His research interests include galaxy formation and evolution, galaxy clusters, galactic dynamics, and observational and computational astronomy. He uses observational data from ground- and space-based telescopes combined with state-of-the-art computer modeling to study the evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. He has been using CWRUs wide-field Burrell Schmidt telescope to survey the nearby Virgo cluster of galaxies for the ghostly intra-cluster light that traces the history of galaxy collisions inside the cluster. He is a member of the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey team, an international project studying the structure and evolution of galaxies within Virgo. Other observational projects of mine include deep multi-wavelength studies of the faint outskirts of nearby galaxies to probe their assembly history, star forming properties, and stellar populations. He also developed computer simulations to study the evolution of colliding galaxies, as well as galaxies orbiting within massive galaxy clusters. These simulations have shown how colliding spiral galaxies can merge to trigger starbursts and quasar activity and transform spirals into elliptical galaxies. Other simulations have shown how the intra-cluster stars found strewn throughout galaxy clusters have been torn out of their parent galaxies by gravitational encounters between cluster galaxies, and how the kinematics of these stars can be used as signatures of past encounters.