The 2014-15 Frontiers of Astronomy Lecture Series will continue with a talk by Sarah Ballard, the NASA Carl Sagan fellow at the University of Washington, on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. in the Murch Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
In her lecture, “Directions to the Nearest Alien Earth-like Planet,” Ballard will address how astronomers used to hedge at the question of whether the sun and its system of planets are unusual in the cosmos. The study of exoplanets—planets around other stars—is relatively new. State-of-the-art instruments just brush up against the sensitivity to find planets similar to Earth.
Ballard will summarize findings from the past couple of years that contextualize Earth as one potentially habitable planet among many. However, the environments of these worlds are by and large astoundingly different from the conditions that have nourished life here at home.
The lecture, presented by the Case Western Reserve University Department of Astronomy through the support of the Arthur S. Holden Sr. Endowment, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Astronomical Society, is free and open to the public. There is a $6 parking fee. Light refreshments will be served.
For more information on the lecture series, visit the Department of Astronomy’s website.