RASC Hamilton - Members Only STOP THE PRESS!!!!!

[Gary Colwell]

Hello everyone..

Stop the Presses!....we have a wonderful change in speakers for tomorrow
night's Monthly meeting.

Dr. Paul Delaney, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at York University has
graciously accepted our invitation to speak at tomorrow night's meeting.

His Topic  "Update on Recent Exoplanetary Research"

" In excess of 4000 exoplanets have been discovered to date and they grow in
numbers on a daily and hourly basis. Great advances have occurred  in
atmospheric determination and the existence of water on some of these
planets. We will be discussing the latest results from the Kepler Telescope,
which is designed to survey a portion of our region of the
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Milky_Way?qsrc=3044&lang=en> Milky Way to discover
dozens of  <http://www.ask.com/wiki/Terrestrial_planet?qsrc=3044&lang=en>
Earth-size  <http://www.ask.com/wiki/Extrasolar_planets?qsrc=3044&lang=en>
extrasolar planets in or near the
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Habitable_zone?qsrc=3044&lang=en> habitable zone
and estimate how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such
planets, Kepler's sole instrument is a
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Photometer?qsrc=3044&lang=en> photometer that
continually monitors the brightness of over 145,000
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Main_sequence_star?qsrc=3044&lang=en> main sequence
stars in a fixed field of view. This data is transmitted to
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Earth?qsrc=3044&lang=en> Earth, then
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Transit_method?qsrc=3044&lang=en> analyzed to
detect periodic dimming caused by extrasolar planets that
<http://www.ask.com/wiki/Astronomical_transit?qsrc=3044&lang=en> cross in
front of their host star.

One of the exciting parts is that amateur astronomers are involved in
analyzing some of the data as part of the "Citizen Science" program.

 

Be sure to come out and invite your friends.this promises to be a meeting
you won't want to miss!

 

See you tomorrow!!!

Gary Colwell

 

 

 

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