What Has Hubble Taught Us?
On Wednesday evening, November 15,
at 7 pm, Dr. Sandra Faber of the University of California at Santa
Cruz will give an illustrated talk in the Silicon Valley Astronomy
Lecture Series, at Foothill College. Admission is free and the
public is invited.
The nontechnical lecture will focus on the Hubble Space Telescope,
which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary in space. Dr.
Faber will show the most meaningful images from the Hubble, including
many that are not familiar to the public. She will explain how
the images (and other data) from the orbiting telescope are changing
our views of the cosmos and ourselves.
Among the images she will discuss are the impact photos when the
fragments of a comet hit Jupiter; close-ups of great nurseries
of stars where we can glimpse what the birth of our own solar
system may have looked like; and the deep views that have allowed
the Hubble to look back ten billion years, when even the great
galaxies of stars were still in their infancy.
The lecture will be held at the Foothill College Smithwick Theater
in Los Altos Hills. From Interstate 280, exit El Monte Road and
travel west to the campus. Visitors much purchase a required campus
parking permit for $2. For directions and information, call the
series hotline at (650) 949-7888.
The program is cosponsored by NASA’s Ames Research Center,
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the SETI Institute.
Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Children
over 13 are most welcome.
Sandra Faber is one of the most respected astronomers in the country
today. A member of the Wide-Field Camera Team for the Hubble,
she was one of the three scientists who diagnosed the problems
of the telescope’s mirror and later helped craft the strategy
for the repair mission. She is one of only three people to carry
the title of University Professor in the University of California
system, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in
1985. Her research interests include the properties and the formation
of galaxies; and she wrote one of the pioneering papers showing
the existence of dark matter—the unknown material that may
fill much of the universe.
Dr. Faber is a member of the “Seven Samurai”—the
fond title given to the group of astronomers who first detected
that the expansion of the universe had large-scale irregularities
in it (indicating that the universe was lumpier than had been
thought.) She is also a part of the team that is showing how common
giant black holes are in the centers of galaxies. In addition,
she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence Institute.
The Theory of Everything
The Morrison Planetarium at the
California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park continues its
series on Astronomy in the New Millennium on November 7 at 7:30pm
with Dr. Michio Kaku from City College of New York speaking on
“Hyperspace, Time Machines, Wormholes and the Theory of Everything”.
This lecture will be in the Morrison Auditorium (not in the planetarium).
Tickets are $3.00 at the door. For information, please call 415-750-7141
or you may check the web site: www.calacademy.org/planetarium.