Hello All!!
With a new year comes an exciting line of speakers!. To kick off the new decade, we are excited to welcome Dr. Paul Delaney as our first guest speaker. Paul's topic - EXOPLANETS
Exoplanets remain one of the hottest areas of astronomical research. We are long past “do they exist” and are now moving into categorizing the types of exoplanets as well as providing weather reports for many of them! The questions associated with astrobiology and the possible presence of life on these worlds is taking centre stage. This talk will briefly summarize exoplanetary history dating back to Canadian efforts in the late 1970s and will also update the latest results from TESS.
Here is a brief Bio:
Paul Delaney
Professor, Teaching Stream
University Professor
Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy
M.Sc. (Victoria)
Administrative Title(s)
Observatory Coordinator, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research specialization
Variable stars; Astronomy education and outreach.
My primary research interest is variable stars. For example, monitoring changes in the periods of highly variable SX Phoenicius stars over several years improves our understanding of stellar evolution. As the coordinator of the York University Observatory, I promote the use of our telescopes for research, education, and outreach, the last including small-group tours and on-line public viewing. Especially, I enlist undergraduate students at York to use the telescopes of the York University Observatory to participate in the monitoring of variable stars, near-Earth asteroids, and eclipsing binary stars. I am regularly called upon by the media for interviews regarding current topics in space and astronomy.
