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| The APOLLO Lunar Ranging Project |
| Professor Tom Murphy |
| Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 at 8:00 PM |
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| Laser range measurements between the earth and the moon have provided one of our best tests to date of general relativity and gravitational phenomenology. APOLLO (Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) is now collecting range measurements at the unprecedented precision of one millimeter, which will produce order-of-magnitude improvements in a variety of gravitational tests. We will discuss how lunar ranging works, evidence for degradation of the reflectors, finding the lost Soviet Lunokhod 1 reflector, project status and science outlook.
Speaker Bio
Professor Tom Murphy grew up in Chattanooga, TN, where he was an active amateur astronomer and telescope builder. He studied physics at Georgia Tech, and pursued graduate work at Caltech. There he built an infrared integral field spectrograph for the Palomar 200-inch telescope, using it to study mergers between large gas rich ultra-luminous infrared galaxies. As a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington, Murphy began design and construction of an apparatus to test gravity by bouncing laser pulses off the reflectors left on the lunar surface by American astronauts and Soviet rovers. In 2003, Murphy moved to the University of California, San Diego where he is an associate professor and continues to run the APOLLO project.
Please join us for a pre-meeting dinner discussion at Changsho, 1712 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA at 6:00pm before the meeting. |
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