Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, will discuss the conditions that would need to be present for life to exist on other planets in a free public lecture titled “New Worlds, Yellowstone and Life in the Universe,” Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the National Air and Space Museum’s Lockheed Martin Imax Theater.

Guests will learn how extreme forms of life found at Yellowstone National Park can teach of the harsh conditions in which life can exist on other planets.

Guests who arrive early can participate in free pre-lecture activities: Discovery Station presentations at 6 p.m.; a classic science fiction film screening at 6:30 p.m.; and a “Meet the Lecturer” session at 7 p.m.

Marcy’s research has focused on the detection of planets around stars other than Earth’s sun. His team has discovered 145 extrasolar planets (as of November 2007), allowing study of the planets’ masses and orbits.
This lecture is part of the second annual John Bahcall Lecture Series, organized and made possible by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and the Hubble Space Telescope Program at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

The National Air and Space Museum building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is located at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. The museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center—home to such historic commercial airplanes as a Concorde, the Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner and the “Dash 80” original prototype for the Boeing 707—is located in Chantilly, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. Both facilities are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Closed Dec. 25) Admission is free, but there is a $12 fee for daily parking at the Udvar-Hazy Center.