Description:

Title: The Circumgalactic Medium: What It Is, and Why It Matters

Speaker: Jason Tumlinson, Johns Hopkins University 

Host: Jonathan Stern

Abstract: The “Circumgalactic Medium” is the vast reservoir of diffuse gas surrounding galaxies that acts as their fuel supply, waste dump, and recycling center. Thanks to recent revolutions in observing and theory we now appreciate that the CGM has a vital role in galaxy formation, but there are many open questions. I will talk about how we got to this point in our understanding of the CGM, draw out the major open questions, and point to some possible routes through new instruments and new simulations to answering these questions.

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics