Yesterday's Jan Frič award ceremony, wherein I look presentable.

Yesterday's Jan Frič award ceremony, wherein I look unusually presentable.

We cordially invite all staff and guests of the Astronomical Institute ASCR to the ceremony of Jan Frič Premium for the year 2018.

The ceremony will take place in the library of the Astronomical Institute ASCR in Ondřejov on Monday, January 21st, from 13:00. Since 2009, Astronomical Institute grants the Premium of Jan Frič to young researchers of the Institute for their extraordinary results, which contribute to the international prestige of the Institute. The laureate for 2018 is the employee of the GPS department Rhys Taylor, Ph.D. He received the Premium for the study of the origin of dark extragalactic clouds of neutral hydrogen. He will deliver a lecture on this topic (in English), entitled, "Inert hydrogen clouds in the Virgo cluster : dark galaxies, tidal debris, or something else ?"

Abstract :

The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey is a large-area, blind neutral hydrogen survey, designed to observe the full range of galaxy environments without the optical biases of traditional surveys. As well as being a sensitive tracer of the effects of environment, HI can be used to detect features which are completely optically dark and cannot be detected by other methods. I will review some of the optically dark features detected so far by AGES, concentrating on a population of isolated, compact clouds in the Virgo cluster with high line widths. Such clouds are not easily explained as tidal debris owing to their high line width and isolation. One possibility is that they may be "dark galaxies", rotating HI discs embedded in dark matter halos but with a gas density too low to allow star formation. I will review the numerical work we have performed to test three proposed explanations for the clouds : tidal debris, dark galaxies, and pressure confined clouds prevented from dispersal by the pressure of the intracluster medium. 3D glasses will be provided to the audience.

To be honest I could have done without giving the seminar YET AGAIN after the last seminar campaign, but I could really say no... :)