You may enjoy this exciting public astronomy lecture: PUBLIC LECTURE ELLIS HALL AUDITORIUM THURSDAY, FEB 27, 7pm Professor Jaymie Mark Matthews Department of Physics & Astronomy University of British Columbia Exploring planets far, far away... without hyperdrive: The real science of real alien worlds When Star Wars filled cinemas around the world in 1977, the sky was empty of known planets outside the Solar System. Today, there are more than a thousand confirmed exoplanets, including worlds with twin sunrises like Anakin and Luke witnessed on their home planet of Tatooine. There are also worlds whose environments are so extreme that George Lucas probably would have rejected them as too weird even for science fiction. Many of these exoplanets were discovered by using the force; in this case, the subtle effects of the force of gravity as a planet orbits its parent star. More and more are now being revealed by the tiny dips in starlight as some planets pass in front of their parent stars, when we see only the dark sides of these mysterious worlds. Learn how astronomers make these measurements, and how the first world beyond the Solar System was actually found by Canadians in 1988, but remained the planetary equivalent of The Phantom Tennis Ball in space until confirmed in 2002. The Star Wars movies would be pretty dull if worlds like Dagobah and Coruscant were not teeming with life. What about the worlds we are finding today? Can any support life? Join Prof. Matthews on Thursday night, 27 Feb 2014, to find out if next years Star Wars: Episode 7 could be set a short time from now, in a galaxy very, very close... our own Milky Way. All are welcome! Please circulate this announcement. Stéphane Courteau Professor and Graduate Coordinator Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy Queens University
Posted on: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 10:36:49 +0000
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