May 28 Los Altos Hills Foothill College
Two Exciting Astronomy Events in May
You are cordially invited to two astronomy events:
1) Free Public Talk on the Pluto system and Beyond
On Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 7 pm (PST), Dr. Oliver White (SETI Institute) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:
"Science at the Edge of the Solar System: Uncovering the Secrets of the Pluto System and Arrokoth"
in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos (see directions below)
The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, now in its 25th year.
Ten years ago the New Horizons spacecraft flew by the Pluto system and revealed an unexpectedly diverse range of landscapes on the dwarf planet and its largest moon Charon, implying complex geological histories for these distant worlds. Dr. White will lead a tour of their often bizarre terrains, some of which are still evolving, and will explain what processes scientists think molded them into their present appearances. After a brief stop at Pluto's four small moons, Dr. White will then extend the tour 2 billion km farther out into space to cover Arrokoth, the tiny planetesimal that New Horizons flew past three and a half years after visiting Pluto. It is the most primitive object in the Solar System yet visited by a spacecraft.
Dr. Oliver White is a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute. His research focuses on unraveling the geological histories of the planets and moons in our Solar System and learning how their surfaces have evolved. A member of the New Horizons mission team, he is particularly interested in the icy outer Solar System worlds, and has produced a geological map of Pluto to be published by the US Geological Survey. He is currently creating a similar map of Saturn's moon Tethys.
Foothill College is just off the El Monte Road exit from Freeway 280 in Los Altos.
For directions and parking information, see:
https://foothill.edu/parking/
For a campus map, to find the Smithwick Theater (Bldg. 1000), see:
https://foothill.edu/map/
Note: Parking lot 1 is closest, with access to the theater by stairs. Parking lot 5 provides access from the same elevation as the theater.
The lecture is co-sponsored by: * The Foothill College Science, Tech, Engineering & Math Division * The SETI Institute and * The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Past lectures in the series can also be found on YouTube at:
http://youtube.com/svastronomylectures
and as audio podcasts at:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1805595
- MTN VIEW
2) The 2025 Frank Drake Award Gala
Please join me, other members of the Board, many of the scientists, and other supporters of the SETI Institute at the
The 2025 Frank Drake Award Ceremonies
May 20, 2025, 5:30 – 9:00 pm
at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA;
(or virtually, from 6:30 – 9:00 pm, with special guests and commentary for those joining us on line.) For those coming in person, your ticket includes a cocktail reception, a gala seated dinner, special activities, and a chance to rub elbows with some of the leaders in the search for life in the universe. Among them will be Institute founder Dr. Jill Tarter; Board member Avery Wang, the key developer of the Shazam music app; science writer Nadia Drake; Apple Senior Vice President, John Giannandrea; SETI scientist Seth Shostak, and many others.
The Drake Award, honoring the Father of SETI, Frank Drake, is the world's premier prize highlighting the science that helps us understand the prevalence of life in the cosmos. This year’s winners are both pioneers in our understanding of how life on Earth began. Dr. David Deamer (U of California, Santa Cruz) has proposed that life may have begun in fresh-water hot-springs and not the oceans, and has suggested a mechanism by which cell membranes might have originated. Dr. John Baross (U of Washington) is a world leader in our understanding of life in extreme environments and one of the originators of the field of astrobiology.
Past winners of the Drake Award include Nobel Laureate Charles Townes, planet modeler Victoria Meadows, Kepler Mission leader William Borucki, Harvard’s Paul Horowitz, and the late Frank Drake himself.
For more information, and to reserve tickets, go to: https://drakeaward.seti.org/
Free parking will be available at the museum, located at 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, CA 94043
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END MAY LOS ALTOS MTN VIEW SETI ASTRONOMY |