Open House Nights in Astronomy 2007-08
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All Open House Nights in Astronomy are free and open to the public. The presentations are designed for a non-technical audience. Astronomical observing at the Mehalso Observatory will be available following the lectures, weather permitting. For more information, call
the School of Science at 814-898-6105. |
| Date | Speaker | Institution | Title |
| September 25, 2008 7:30 p.m. Otto Behrend Science Building Lecture Hall |
Dr. Roger Knacke | Penn State Behrend | The Large Hadron Collider: Searching for Dark Matter and Dark Energy |
| October 30, 2008 7:30 p.m. Otto Behrend Science Building Lecture Hall |
Dr. Michael A'Hearn | University of Maryland | EPOXI: Deep Impact Glued to Extrasolar Planets |
| December 4, 2008 7:30 p.m. Otto Behrend Science Building Lecture Hall |
Dr. Darren Williams | Penn State Behrend | Cosmic Cataclysm: Why Do Stars Explode? |
February 26, 2009 |
Dava Sobel | Science Writer and Historian | The Planets |
| March 19, 2009 7:30 p.m. Otto Behrend Science Building Lecture Hall |
Dr. Darren Williams | Penn State Behrend | Scoping Out The Extrasolar Planet Zoo |
April 23, 2009 |
Dr. Roger Knacke | Penn State Behrend | The Great Telescopes: Galileo's Legacy |
May 9, 2009
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Penn State Behrend | NATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY |
The Large Hadron Collider: Searching for Dark Matter and Dark Energy
September 25, 2008
In the first of the 2008-09 Penn State Behrend Open House Nights in Astronomy series, Dr. Roger Knacke will present a lecture about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC will be the largest, most expensive, and most far-reaching physics experiment ever attempted when experiments begin later this year. Opposing beams of heavy, subatomic particles (hadrons) will be accelerated to nearly the speed of light and then smash into each other in a circular, underground particle accelerator with a circumference of seventeen miles that is located on the border between France and Switzerland. Scientists hope that the LHC will tell us how the matter in the universe gets its mass and what the nature is of the mysterious “dark matter” that lies between the stars, but which no one has been able to identify. Perhaps the biggest discoveries will be unexpected ones as scientists probe energies fifteen times greater than any achieved before.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be suitable for a non-technical audience. Astronomical observing from Penn State Behrend’s Mehalso Observatory will follow the lecture, weather permitting. For more information, contact the school at 814-898-6105.
EPOXI: Deep Impact Glued to Extrasolar Planets
October 30, 2008
Where did we come from? The NASA mission DEEP IMPACT explored the interior of Comet Tempel 1 to help us understand how the solar system formed. Now the spacecraft from DEEP IMPACT is the vehicle for a new mission called EPOXI. EPOXI combines a flyby of Comet Hartley 2 in 2010 with the study of extrasolar planets, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun. The goals of the comet part of the mission are to investigate questions raised by the Temple 1 study. We want to understand whether there was significant mixing of material from different parts of the solar system before planets began to form. The study of the extrasolar planets tells us about our own solar system's origin. Most of the planetary systems observed so far are very different from our own. We need to study the details of these other systems to understand why our own solar system turned out so differently, becoming favorable for life and for us.
Dr. A’Hearn’s lecture will include video footage of the impact of the spacecraft probe on the surface of Comet Temple 1. Dr. A’Hearn is the 2008 winner of the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding contributions to planetary science.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be suitable for a non-technical audience. Astronomical observing from Penn State Behrend’s Mehalso Observatory will follow the lecture, weather permitting. For more information, contact the school at 814-898-6105.
Cosmic Cataclysm: Why Do Stars Explode?
Thursday, December 4, 2008
When a star explodes, “it wakes up the neighbors,” says Darren Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. “If a star in the Big Dipper detonated at a safe distance—say, 80 light years from Earth— the light show would be both spectacular and dangerous. A single exploding star radiates the energy of a hundred billion Suns, and is bright enough to be seen within galaxies located billions of light years from Earth.”
This infrequent but dazzling phenomenon will be the subject of the next Open House Night in Astronomy. Dr. Williams also will discuss the different ways that stars burn out, and the long history of observation of these brilliant occurrences.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be suitable for a non-technical audience. Astronomical observing from Penn State Behrend’s Mehalso Observatory will follow the lecture, weather permitting. For more information, contact the school at 814-898-6105.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
To kick off the world-wide 2009 “Year of Astronomy,” Penn State Behrend will host best-selling author Dava Sobel. She will give a popular lecture titled “The Planets.”
A former New York Times science reporter, Dava Sobel is the author of Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (now in its twenty-ninth hardcover printing) and Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love. She has been repeatedly honored for her ability to foster awareness of, and interest in, science and technology.
Sobel’s appearance is jointly sponsored by the college’s Speaker Series and the School of Science’s Open House Nights in Astronomy. Admission is free and open to the public; parking will be available in the REDC deck located on Technology Drive, off Jordan Road. Astronomical observing from Penn State Behrend’s Mehalso Observatory will follow the lecture, weather permitting. For more information, contact the school at 814-898-6105.
Scoping Out The Extrasolar Planet Zoo
Thursday, March 19, 2009
One planet, two planets, red planets, blue planets. The number of planets known to orbit nearby stars has now swelled to more than 300. And most have been discovered in only the last decade. This vast assortment now warrants a kind of zoological classification scheme, with planets grouped by size, proximity to their stars, orbital shape, and potential to support life. To everyone’s surprise, planetary system architecture varies wildly from one system to the next, and planets larger than Jupiter have been found closer to their stars than tiny Mercury is to the Sun.
In tonight’s Open House Nights in Astronomy lecture, Dr. Williams will take inventory of the strange suite of new exoplanet systems and discuss their extraordinary properties.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture is intended for a non-technical audience and suitable for children at least 8 years of age. Astronomical observing from Penn State Behrend’s Mehalso Observatory will follow the lecture, weather permitting. For more information, contact the school at 814-898-6105.
The Great Telescopes: Galileo's Legacy
Thursday, April 23, 2009
In the sixth presentation of the 2008-09 Penn State Behrend Open House Nights in Astronomy series, Dr. Roger Knacke will present a lecture about telescopes, from Galileo’s first instrument to present and future telescopes. In celebration of the “Year of Astronomy” in 2009, Dr. Knacke will describe Galileo’s telescope and his observations of the moon, planets, and stars. With this telescope, Galileo changed science forever, and revolutionized how humankind thinks about religion, philosophy, and our place in the universe. Today, the telescope has evolved into frontline instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as Hubble’s soon-to-be launched replacement, the James Webb Telescope. Finally, Dr. Knacke will discuss planned new telescopes, including the gigantic Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project. These telescopes will explore the most distant reaches of the universe, and its very early history as the first stars formed some 13 billion years ago.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture is intended for a non-technical audience. Astronomical observing from Penn State Behrend’s Mehalso Observatory will follow the lecture, weather permitting. For more information, contact the school at 814-898-6105.
May 2, 2009
Celebrate National Astronomy Day at Penn State Behrend with astronomical viewing on Saturday, May 2. In the evening starting at 8:30 p.m., the telescopes of the Mehalso Observatory and of the Erie County Mobile Observers Group will be trained on the Moon, Saturn, stars, nebulae, and galaxies.
Astronomy Day in 2009 is a part of the “International Year of Astronomy,” celebrating the 400th anniversary of the year that Galileo first trained a telescope on the heavens.
Astronomical observing depends on the weather, so the sky has to be clear enough for you to see the moon or stars. The telescopes are located in the field behind the Otto Behrend Science Building.
For those interested in astronomy as a hobby, members of the Erie County Mobile Observers Group can help you get started and answer questions. There will not be a lecture for this event.
The event is free and suitable for all ages, including young children. For more information, call 898-6105.