New Worlds, Yellowstone, and Life in the UniverseNational Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Star Trek and Star Wars would have us believe that the universe is teeming with habitable planets and advanced species. In reality, Earth-like planets and extraterrestrial life have proved elusive. Was science fiction wrong? What makes a world hospitable for life? Telescopes have been hunting for such planets for decades, but have only recently started finding some candidates. In the next two years, a generation of improved telescopes will start looking. What will they find? Will new discoveries spark new speculation about alien life?
Geoff Marcy is a professor of astronomy and the director of the Center for Integrative Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His team discovered the majority of the 250 known planets around other stars.
6:00 PM Discovery Station Presentations
6:30 PM Free Classic Science Fiction Feature
7:00 PM Meet the Lecturer
7:30 PM Lecture
This lecture is made possible by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and the Hubble Space Telescope Program at the Goddard Space Flight Center. This program is part of their 2nd annual John Bahcall Lecture Series.
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