Free Live Streaming Silicon Valley Lecture
Nov. 11, 2020 at 7:00 pm PST Dr. Michael Brown, of Caltech, will give a free, illustrated, non-technical talk.
”Planet 9 from Outer Space: Searching for a Distant Planet in our Solar System”
The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series (through Foothill College), now in its 21st year.
About this Lecture
Just when the world was finally getting used to only having eight planets orbiting the Sun, the presence of a new ninth one is slowly coming into view at the edge of the solar system. This planet -- Planet Nine -- is inferred from of its gravitational effects shaping the disk of small icy bodies beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper belt. Dr. Brown will talk about the history of planetary discovery (and demotion), why we think a new one is on the verge of being found, and the techniques that we are using to try to find this very faint body lurking in the far reaches of our planetary system.
Dr. Michael Brown is a Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology where he teaches classes from introductory physics to the science of the solar system. He is the author of "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming", an award-winning, best-selling memoir of the discoveries leading to the demotion of Pluto as a planet. He has discovered dozens of dwarf planets and received the 2012 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of the extent and history of our planetary system. He and his research group spend their time searching for and studying the most distant objects in the Solar System.
The lecture is co-sponsored by:
The Foothill College Physical Science Division
The SETI Institute
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
The University of California Observatories (including Lick Observatory)
If you can't make it, please visit the Silicon Valley Lecture Series YoutTube channel for past recordings.
