Comments (0)

By AJG, March 3, 2009

Come join us for Far Out Friday in Second Life (R) streamed live from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago! The first Friday of every month we’ll host a live streamed lecture on ‘Astronomy 2009′ island, an island that celebrates the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Let’s all give the Adler a friendly welcome to Second Life for their first event!  Guests may have an opportunity to get their questions answered by the speaker at the conclusion.

Location in Second Life:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Astronomy%202009/50/200/31/

FRIDAY MARCH 6 WE WILL HAVE 2 LECTURES!

Lecture 1:
The Galileo Wars: Thirty Years and Four Centuries
Br. Guy Consolmagno — Astronomer, Vatican Observatory
March 6, 2009
5:00 p.m. SLT on ‘Astronomy 2009′ island under the blue star dome!

Everything you know about the Galileo affair is wrong. But the truth doesn’t make anyone look any better!
Recent research ties the Galileo trial of 1632 to the politics of the 30 Years War, while the four centuries of conflict over Galileo following that trial have shaped the public conception of what astronomy is, and how it is done. We will examine the politics and the science that fed into the Galileo controversy; the response of scientists and educators in the hundred years following his trial; and what present day conceptions about Galileo have done to our modern understanding of science and its role in society.

Dr. Consolmagno has served as chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society and president of Commission 16 (Planets and Satellites) of the International Astronomical Union. He has been with the Vatican Observatory since 1993, where his research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. In addition, Dr. Consolmagno curates the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo. Along with more than 100 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of popular books including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), Worlds Apart (with Martha Schaefer), Brother Astronomer, and God’s Mechanics.

For more information: http://adlerplanetarium.org/fof/index.shtml#lectures

Lecture 2:
The Quest for Our Origins: The Search for Other Worlds and Life in the Universe
Scott Gaudi — Prof of Astronomy, Ohio State University
March 6, 2009
6:15 p.m. SLT on ‘Astronomy 2009′ island under the blue star dome!

We are privileged to live in a remarkable time. For the first time in human history, we are beginning to glimpse answers to some of our oldest questions: Are there other worlds out there? Are there other solar systems like ours? Do those systems contain Earthlike planets? Do those planets harbor life? Dr. Scott Gaudi will provide a guided tour of the golden age of the exploration of extrasolar worlds and the search for extraterrestrial life, focusing on the hunt for analogs to our solar system, and the search for the ‘pale blue dot’: another world just like our own.

Scott Gaudi earned his B.S. from Michigan State University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He was a Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, and a Menzel Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, before joining the faculty in the Department of Astronomy at the Ohio State University in 2006. He was named one of “20 Scientists to Watch in 20 Years” by Discover Magazine in 2000, and he was named one of Astronomy Magazine’s “10 Rising Stars of Astronomy” this past year. His research is focused on the search for, and characterization of, extrasolar planets using a variety of techniques. He designed and is currently teaching a popular undergraduate course on ‘Life in the Universe’.

For more information: http://adlerplanetarium.org/fof/index.shtml#lectures