Announcements – Page 2 – San Francisco Regional Mensa

Technology of Space

Jun 26, 2025

Lockheed Martin has developed many innovative projects for Space, most recently a Lightning Mapper which is used for forecasting of tornadoes and warnings of lightning-caused fires. We have 2 Guinness World records for detecting the longest lightning distance/duration. Other historic projects include Gravity Probe-B to confirm Einstein’s gravitational theories, Solar observing imagers, high-energy particle spectrometers, and other innovative projects in conjunction with world-wide universities. Ron Baraze began working at Lockheed during his sophomore-year at Gungh-school in Palo Alto, and was hired full-time after completing college at UCSC. I have worked on 23 space-flight projects for Lockheed Martin partnered with higher-learning institutions such as Stanford University, Oxford Physics Department, University of Huntsville, and the Enrico Fermi...

A Trip to the Center of our Galaxy

Jun 27, 2025

The heart of the Milky Way is home to Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole approximately four million times the mass of the Sun. Although it remains largely quiet today, it is surrounded by a turbulent sea of gas, dust, and exotic objects that could one day trigger dramatic outbursts. This presentation delves into this extreme environment, exploring the large-scale gas clouds and the closer-in structures that fuel the black hole. It examines how molecular hydrogen manages to survive intense ultraviolet radiation and introduces a newly identified class of enigmatic objects orbiting perilously close to Sagittarius A*. Observed over two decades with the Keck Observatory, these objects may represent the remnants of stellar collisions or merged binaries, offering valuable insights into how matter behaves under immense gravitational forces. Mapping this region helps to illuminate the intricate interplay of stars, gas, and gravity at the core of the galaxy. Anna Ciurlo‘s research focuses on stars and gas around the supermassive black hole in the center of our Galaxy. Her work leverages high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy from large ground and space-based observatories like Keck and the JWST. She earned her PhD in astrophysics from the Sorbonne Paris Cité and pursued postdoctoral research at UCLA. She was an inaugural year Keck Visiting Scholar at Keck Observatory. Anna continues at UCLA in the Galactic Center Group as an assistant researcher and adjunct assistant...

Technology of Space

A Trip to the Center of our Galaxy

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