This week, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and Etelman Observatory will host its first international astronomy conference on St. Thomas. The focus will be a discussion of the exciting detections of gravitational radiation over the past 18 months, which confirms an almost 100- year-old prediction by Einstein, according to David Morris.
The general conference is only open to paid registrants due to space limitations. There will, however, be a specific talk designed for public-access to be held in the first-floor conference room at UVI’s ACC (Administration and Conference Center) at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 8. Admission is free and open to all. The talk will be geared at a general audience, so bring friends and children. There is a large parking lot and additional parking by the Sports and Fitness Center should it be necessary.
There will also be a second international astrophysics conference on St. Thomas held July 11-14. This one will be focus on Active Galactic Nuclei, which are galaxies that power extremely bright light sources at their cores through the interaction of supermassive black holes with nearby material that is falling into them. Once again, the conference will be limited to paid registrants, but UVI will be host at least one free, public-access talk at a local venue. The venue is yet to be chosen.
For more information on the conferences, visit this Web site.
Also, the Etelman Observatory Open House will be held Friday, June 9.
