Opening Evening Virtual Talk
Thursday, August 22
Time: TBD
Free Registration information coming soon
NASA’s Mission to Touch the Sun -- Parker Solar Probe
with Kelly Korreck, NASA Headquarters
About the Talk
What is faster than a speeding bullet? What can fly though turbulence without fastening its seat belt? What can tell us about the origins of our solar system at the same time performing its main mission to understand our closest star? NASA’s Parker Solar Probe! The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft was designed to solve 3 mysteries of the Sun as well as the very practical goal of furthering our understanding of space weather. The talk will cover Parker’s measurements of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs- billions of tons of material hurling through space at millions of miles an hour - part of space weather), as well as recent Venus encounters and a few other surprises that Parker has discovered as the mission gets ready for its closest planned approach in December 2024!
About Kelly Korreck
Heliophysicist, Dr. Kelly Korreck, knows how to handle the heat. She built and operated instruments to study the Sun and understand its hot explosive outer atmosphere or corona. Her career has taken her from the desert of New Mexico, to Japan, to the inner most part of the solar system. She was the head of science operations and project manager for the SWEAP Suite aboard Parker Solar Probe. She worked with engineers and scientists to create the best data from this once-in-a-lifetime mission. Kelly served as the NASA Program Manager for the 2023 and 2024 Solar Eclipses. Currently, Kelly is a Program Scientist in the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. Kelly holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy and a PhD in Space Physics both from the University of Michigan.
Friday Virtual Movie Night
August 23
Time: TBD
Free Registration information coming soon
Small Town Universe -
A Documentary
with Guests, Filmmaker Katie Dellamaggiore and Astrophysicist Ellie White
Small Town Universe paints an intimate and captivating portrait of life in Green Bank, West Virginia, home to the world's most sensitive radio telescope and the only U.S. town where Wi-Fi and cell phones are banned. In this uniquely radio-quiet community, scientists use the telescope to search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and advance the field of radio astronomy while residents navigate through pivotal moments of existence, forming deep connections with the universe, science, and one another.
Filmmaker and Director
Katie Dellamaggiore is an Emmy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker and commercial director. Her feature directorial debut, Brooklyn Castle, won the SXSW Audience Award, was a New York Times Critic's Pick, and was nationally broadcast by PBS's acclaimed POV series. At Courageous Studios, Warner Bros Discovery's branded content studio, Katie directs bold, culturally relevant premium storytelling for advertisers. She’s directed commercials for Delta, Sleep Number, Subaru, Hulu, Lego, The Salvation Army, Abbott, and Micron. Her recent work for Amica won the Digiday Best Brand Series award. Katie's latest feature, Small Town Universe, won the Global Health Competition Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival and is playing the film festival circuit.
Ellie White (she/her) is a graduate student and longtime science geek. She is currently working on a Master's degree in Physics at Marshall University, where she also teaches introductory astronomy and physics classes. Through the years she has worked on research projects in the fields of astronomical instrumentation and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) with the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the UC Berkeley SETI Research Center, and the SETI Institute, for which she received the 2021 SETI Forward Award. Her other passions include astronomy and STEAM outreach and DEI efforts, and she is a founding member of the nonprofit, West Virginia Alliance for STEM and the Arts. In her free time, she likes spending time with her family, friends, and pets, enjoying the outdoors, baking obsessively, reading, and watching too many rom coms.
