MVAS General Meeting/Speaker: Dr. Eli Visbal, University of Toledo

Name: MVAS General Meeting/Speaker: Dr. Eli Visbal, University of Toledo
Start: 2026-06-12T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-06-12T21:15:00-04:00
Location: VFW Post 3283; 5074 Nebraska Ave., Huber Heights, OH 45424

Schedule

Fri Jun 12 2026 at 07:00 pm to 09:15 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

VFW Post 3283; 5074 Nebraska Ave., Huber Heights, OH 45424 | Huber Heights, OH

For the June MVAS General Meeting, Dr. Eli Visbal, University of Toledo, will give the main presentation titled “Observational Signatures of the First Stars in the James Webb Space Telescope Era”. Here is a quick summary:
"The first stars in the universe, called Population III stars, formed from pristine gas left over from the Big Bang and helped bring an end to the cosmic “dark ages.” Despite their importance, these stars have never been definitively observed. A central goal is to understand their properties and develop robust ways to identify them observationally. In this talk, I will describe how astronomers think the first stars formed and why they are so challenging to detect. I will highlight recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, including a distant, gravitationally-lensed object that may represent our first glimpse of this long-predicted population. I will also discuss how these first stars enriched the universe with the first heavy elements, leaving behind chemical fingerprints that can still be observed today, offering another window into this earliest chapter of cosmic history."
PRESENTER'S BIO:
Dr. Eli Visbal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Toledo. He earned a B.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. He then held postdoctoral appointments at Columbia University and the Flatiron Institute in New York City before joining UT. His research is in theoretical astrophysics, where he uses analytical calculations and large-scale computer simulations to study how the first stars and supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. He is originally from Yellow Springs, Ohio.
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ABOUT OUR GENERAL MEETINGS:
On the second Friday of every month, the MVAS has its General Meeting OPEN to ALL (i.e., all its members AND THE PUBLIC). No cost to attend. We gather to listen, discuss, and learn about all things related to amateur astronomy from each other.
Our meetings primarily consist of a short business portion in which the Society's happenings are discussed. The main part of the meeting will be a presentation aimed at educating attendees some new aspect of amateur astronomy, general astronomy, space exploration, or science in general.