Mar 04, 2020 7:00 AM
Dr. Saeko Hayashi
What’s in your fridge? Connection between us and the universe.

Do you know your cell phone is powered by a battery which contains rather precious material created during rare occasions in the universe? How about your golf club - the material that makes the shafts originated inside the stars and recycled through the end-of-life explosions. I would like to showcase some of these connections between the familiar items and the rare phenomena or objects in the universe, revealed by the astronomical telescopes. Then I would like to touch on some materials used to construct next generation telescopes actually have common characteristics with the household items like Pyrex in your fridge. Stars are out of the world, but their products are inside and around us! 

Profile of the speaker:

Saeko S. Hayashi is a long time Hilo resident and currently in California. Official title is the associate professor of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. When she was a green astronomer whose first work was with a radio telescope on Maunakea, she always carried an English dictionary (printed one!) to look up words and sentences. Her second tour of duty in Hawaii was with the Subaru Telescope for about two decades. Now she can consult words in a hand-held devices. Her present work is making “da bestest” mirror of a telescope for the next generation explorers. Her two kolohes grew up in Hilo are now in Nevada and in Scotland.