• Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

September 11, 2026 3:30 PM - September 11, 2026 4:30 PM
PAIS 1100

Host:

Sally Seidel

Presenter:

Regina Caputo

The New Messengers and New Physics and Cosmic Ecosystem priority themes from the Astro2020 Decadal Survey are uniquely addressed at gamma-ray energies. Our group at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is developing technologies and future telescopes to enable observations to fill these critical capability gaps revealed by Fermi and fully capitalize on this exciting new era. This talk will present the development of CMOS silicon pixel detectors, called AstroPix, and their planned launch; the recent balloon flight of the ComPair gamma-ray prototype telescope; the next steps for ComPair; and community efforts to prioritize gamma-ray missions in the future.

About Regina Caputo

"My research interests lie in understanding the particle nature of the universe, high-energy particle acceleration, the creation of black holes and how they interact with their environment, and the major component of matter: Dark matter."