Cafe Sci Orlando announcements for 2009-05: Measuring Exoplanets from Space
Chad MILLER
* Topic, "Measuring Exoplanets from Space"
* Stick Science contest
Topic, "Measuring Exoplanets from Space"
At 7PM on Wednesday 6 May, at Taste, in College Park, we'll have a
fascinating discussion for you.
Prior to 1993, we knew it would be a long time before anyone detected a
planet orbiting another star. Then suddenly it happened, and it was
bizarre! Not one, but several worlds doing the impossible: Orbiting
pulsars—strange piles of neutrons leftover from powerful supernova
explosions that no planet was thought capable of surviving. Shortly
thereafter, a normal planet was found to orbit a normal star, in an
orbit of just 4 days! The surprises do not end there.
Dr. Joseph Harrington, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at
UCF, one of the first to measure exoplanets by their own light, will
present a number of news-making discoveries by his team and others that
have set the theory community abuzz.
Directions
Taste
717 W. Smith Street
Orlando, United States
32804
Taste is near the corner of Princeton Street (really Smith Street after
the fork) and Edgewater Drive, so about 2 minutes from I-4 to parking.
One can park on the street or in the parking lot behind Taste.
* From Downtown and south, drive north ("east") on I-4 through
downtown. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and turn
left/west.
* From Altamonte Springs and north, drive south ("west") on I-4
toward downtown Orlando. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and
turn right/west.
From I-4, drive a few blocks to Edgewater Drive. At the intersection,
you should see a orange building ahead of you, labled "Taste". Park on
the street or behind Taste.
Stick Science contest
Florida Citizens for Science is holding a [1]contest to make a comic
that will educate the reader about some misconception in sciences. They
have a panel of [2]celebrities to judge winners. The [3]constraints
include must using stick figures, and educating or humor but never
ridicule. There are some pretty [4]sweet prizes, too.
References
1. http://www.flascience.org/sshome.html
2. http://www.flascience.org/ssjudge.html
3. http://www.flascience.org/ssrules.html
4. http://www.flascience.org/ssprizes.html