Science Public Lecture Series: Hot on the Trail of Warm Planets Around Cool Stars

Please join us for a Science Research Lecture at Harvard University: “Hot on the Trail of Warm Planets Around Cool Stars” 

Date:  Wednesday, September 25th @ 7:00pm

Location:  Harvard Science Center Hall C, One Oxford Street, Cambridge. 

Speaker:  Dr. John Asher Johnson, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard –Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 

ABSTRACT:

Just three years ago the prospect of finding temperate, rocky worlds around other stars was still the subject of science fiction: none had been found and reasonable estimates put us years or decades away from such a momentous discovery. All of that has changed very recently on the heels of the extraordinarily successful NASA Kepler mission. By searching for the tiny diminutions of starlight indicative of an eclipsing planet, Kepler has produced thousands of new planet candidates orbiting distant stars. Careful statistical analyses have shown that the majority of these candidates are bona fide planets, and the number of planets increases sharply toward Earth-sized bodies. Even more remarkably, many of these planets are orbiting stars right “next door.” Dr. Johnson will describe the multi-telescope campaign to validate and characterize these tiny planetary systems, and present some early, exciting results that point the way toward a large sample of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars.

Event is sponsored by Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of Science at Harvard University

Please forward this invitation to anyone who may be interested in attending.

For more information contact: science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu