Alumni, parents, and friends of Whitman College are invited to an in person discussion of The Interstellar Medium in the Infrared: Using JWST and SOFIA to Study Nearby Galaxies presented by Assistant Professor of Astronomy, Jessica Sutter '15.

The gas and dust that fills galaxies, commonly referred to as the interstellar medium (ISM), regulates the formation of stars and determines the future growth of a galaxy. Infrared observations are ideal for studying the ISM, as infrared light can pass through a galaxy without being blocked. In the near and mid infrared, the emission features of small dust grains dominate galaxy emission, measurements of which can illuminate how heat is flowing through the ISM. In the far-infrared, cooling lines show how a galaxy remains in thermal balance and provide a vital tool for understanding distant galaxies. By studying infrared observations of nearby galaxies, we can establish how the properties of the ISM vary across different environments, including the turbulent centers which house supermassive black holes, the twisting spiral arms, and the nearly empty space between them. Comparisons to visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground based observatories as well as models of galaxy emission can illuminate changes to how efficiently each galaxy is forming new stars in different locations across its disk. Measurements of nearby galaxies also provide the context for observations of galaxies in the distant universe, allowing us to see not only far away but also backwards in time. With the first data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) providing unprecedented spatial resolution and sensitivity, we can now trace the dust in nearby galaxies on scales of >100 lightyears, providing a view of the ISM previously only accessible in our nearest neighbors. Using both new data from JWST and archival data from Herschel and SOFIA, Sutter will discuss the power of infrared measurements in understanding the conditions within the ISM.