Pluto, Eris, and the Dwarf Planets of the Outer Solar System
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Free, Tickets Required
7 PM - FREE showing of Cosmic Collisions in the Albert Einstein Planetarium. This half-hour planetarium show launches visitors on a thrilling trip through space and time - well beyond the calm face of the night sky - to explore cosmic collisions, hypersonic impacts that drive the dynamic and continuing evolution of the universe.
7:30 PM - Meet the Lecturer
8 PM - Lecture
The Kuiper Belt is a mysterious region beyond Neptune and stretching more than four billion miles from the Sun. Using powerful telescopes, scientists are scouring the Belt and beyond, finding hundreds of small frigid objects such as Eris, which is larger than Pluto and takes 560 years to orbit the Sun; and smaller Sedna, with an elliptical orbit that takes more than 10,000 years to complete. Join Mike Brown as he describes the hunt for these ancient and elusive worlds.
Mike Brown is Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and the discoverer, along with colleagues, of Eris (formerly 2003 UB313), Sedna, and other distant bodies.
This lecture is free, but tickets are required.
The Exploring Space Lectures are made possible by the generous support of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Aerojet, with contributions from NASA.
How to attend
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
6th St. and Independence Ave SW. Washington, DC 20560
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