Episode 12: Quasars: Clues to the Ancient Universe, with Patrick Hall

Our guest today is Patrick Hall who joins Justin Trottier at The Star Spot to discuss one of the most energetic, myserious and ancient of phenomana in our universe: quasars. Hall shares his insights into the role quasars played in the evolution of the cosmos and galaxy formation, the mechanisms and physics of their behaviour, and the rare occurence of double quasars. He also describes the eventual fate of our Milky Way Galaxy to merge with Andromeda and produce quasars of our own. Finally, they focus on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and explore the tremendous opportunities afforded researchers by the growing scale and scope of large sky surveys. In Current in Space we introduce a cryptic new start-up company Uwingu seeking to fundraising and raise public engagement in space exploration, comment on the enduring fascination with the concept of a space elevator, and pay tribute to one of the greatest explorers of our time - Neil Armstrong. About Patrick Hall Patrick Hall received his PhD in astronomy from the University of Arizona, worked at Princeton University as its Observatory Research Associate and is currently associate professor at York University. He is an expert in quasars and active galactic nuclei. He’s received a number of National Science and Engineering Research Council grants as well as the ontario early research award for studies on disks of matter orbiting supermassive black holes. Hall participates in analyzing data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project that, among many many other things, resulted in the discovery of an asteroid that now bears his name Pathall.