FW: Two Free Astronomy Events Coming Oct. 16 and 18th
Melinda Weil
From: Andrew Fraknoi [mailto:frakno...@fhda.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2019 2:30 PM
To: Andrew Fraknoi <foothill...@gmail.com>
Subject: Two Free Astronomy Events Coming Oct. 16 and 18th
TWO FREE ASTRONOMY EVENTS (Please share with students and colleagues. Thanks.)
1) On Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 7 pm, Dr. Jeff Moore, of NASA’s Ames Research Center, will give a free, illustrated, non-technical talk on:
”Encounter with Ultima Thule: The Most Distant Object Humanity Has Ever Explored”
in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos.
The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series at Foothill College, now in its 20th year.
After a successful encounter with Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft, for the first time flew by a member of the Kuiper Belt of icy objects beyond Neptune. This particular object, officially called 2014MU69, but informally named “Ultimate Thule” (meaning the farthest place beyond the known world,) turned out to be a “contact binary” – two smaller icy worlds stuck together. Such objects are left over from the time our solar system was first coming together and provides scientists with a glimpse of what it was like here before the Earth even formed. Dr. Moore will share an insider’s view (with great images) of how the mission got to its targets and what we learned while passing by Ultima Thule.
Dr. Jeff Moore is a Research Scientist in the Space Science Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center and a leader of the Imagining Team that explored both Pluto and Ultima Thule. He has been a member or leader of several other space mission teams, including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. His research focuses on the nature and evolution of the surfaces of planets and moons in the solar system, including the role of impacts, quakes, and volcanoes on other worlds. He has also worked at the University of Oklahoma’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and at the SETI Institute.
Foothill College is just off the El Monte Road exit from Freeway 280 in Los Altos.
For directions and parking information, see: foothill.edu/parking.
For a campus map, see: foothill.edu/map.
The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* The Foothill College Physical Science Division
* The SETI Institute
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
* NASA’s Ames Research Center.
We get large crowds for these talks, so we ask people to try to arrive a little bit early to find parking. The lecture is free, but there is a charge of $3 for parking on campus and exact change is appreciated.
Past lectures in the series can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures
2) Earth to Space: A Free Day of Astronomy at San Francisco State Oct. 18
Join astronomy enthusiasts from around the Bay to celebrate the 130th year of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), and the outreach work of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at SF State University, during an astronomy festival from 1 to 10 pm on Friday, Oct. 18th, 2019, on the university’s campus.
Activities include panels, talks, telescope observing, and shows at the university planetarium. Admission to each event is free and first-come, first-served. For more detailed schedules, plus parking and transportation information, see: http://www.astrosociety.org/annualmeeting
Speakers include Debra Fischer (Yale University), who discovered the first system of planets orbiting another star, NASA’s Kimberly Ennico Smith, who has been a part of a number of space-probe and space-telescope missions, and Steve Richard, local co-chair of the Climate Reality Project. The 7:30 pm Keynote Lecture (on “The Top Tourist Sights of the Solar System”) will be given by Andrew Fraknoi (former Executive Director of the ASP).
San Francisco State staff will offer an open house at both the campus Observatory and the Planetarium (star theater) and there will be students and volunteers with telescopes set up for safe viewing of the Sun during the day. Families are welcome.
The ASP was founded in San Francisco in 1889, but has, since that time, become of the largest and most active astronomy organizations in the world. San Francisco State is one of the premier institutions of higher learning in the Bay Area and has an active program to train undergraduates and graduate students in astronomy.
____________________________________________
Andrew Fraknoi
Emeritus Chair, Astronomy Department
Foothill College
(Currently teaching at U. of San Francisco & San Francisco State U.)
415-484-5350 (voice mail)
E-mail: frakno...@fhda.edu
Web site: www.fraknoi.com
AstroProf Facebook Pages: www.facebook.com/Fraknoi