Free Public Talk on the Search for Other Earths at Foothill College Nov. 17h
Melinda L. Weil
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On Wednesday, Nov. 17th, 2010, at 7 pm,
Astronomer Natalie Batalha from San Jose
State University and the Kepler Mission, will give
a non-technical, illustrated talk on:
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Catching Shadows: Kepler's Search for New Worlds
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as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.
Free and open to the public.
Parking on campus costs $2.
Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for
more information and driving directions.
No background in science will be required for
this talk.
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Humanity's quest to learn about the existence of other
worlds like our own has made a huge step forward
with the launch of NASA's Kepler spacecraft in
March 2009. The mission is designed to survey a
slice of the Milky Way Galaxy to identify planets orbiting
other stars. Kepler has the advantage that it can find
planets as small as Earth in or near the habitable zone
of each star. It will help us determine if such planets are
abundant in our galaxy. Dr. Batalha will describe the
techniques used by the Kepler team to identify Earth-size
planets and share some of the mission discoveries to date.
Natalie Batalha is a professor of physics and astronomy
at San Jose State University in the heart of Silicon Valley,
and the Deputy Science Team Lead for NASA's Kepler
Mission. She holds a bachelor's in physics from the
University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate in
astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz. After a post-doctoral
fellowship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Batalha became
inspired by the growing number of planets being discovered
around other stars (500 such planets are currently known.)
Eleven years later, she stands poised with the Kepler team
to learn whether or not Earth-sized planets are abundant
in our galaxy.
The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The SETI Institute
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available
in MP3 format at:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html
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Andrew Fraknoi, Chair, Astronomy Program
Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Rd.,
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA
Telephone: (650) 949-7288
E-mail: frakno...@fhda.edu
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