Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
EinsteinтАЩs Blunder Undone: The Runaway Universe
November 11, 2015
Dr. Robert Kirshner (Harvard University)
Listen (mp3 file, 43.2 MB)
In the past 20 years, astronomers have shown that the universe is not only expanding, but speeding up. In this talk, Dr. Kirshner, who was in many ways the “godfather” of these investigations, discusses the methods used to discover cosmic acceleration and presents the evidence that we live in a Universe that is only 4% matter like the atoms of the periodic table.
In the Land of Enchantment: The Epic Story of the Cassini Mission to Saturn
October 7, 2015
Dr. Carolyn Porco (Imaging Team Leader for Cassini)
Listen (mp3 file, 46.9 MB)
Since 2004, Cassini has been exploring the giant planet Saturn, its magnificent ring system, and its intriguing moons. Dr. Porco shows us many of the magnificent mission images and explains the findings from both the main orbiter and the probe that landed on Titan, SaturnтАЩs biggest moon. She also discusses the geysers on the moon Enceladus and what we have learned about the plumes that erupt.
100 Years of Einstein’s Relativity (And How it Underlies Our Modern Understanding of the Universe)
May 6, 2015
Dr. Jeffrey Bennett (University of Colorado)
Listen (mp3 file, 54.7 MB)
2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s completion of his General Theory of Relativity, the comprehensive theory of space, time, and gravity. Dr. Bennett explains the basic ideas of Einstein’s work (both the special and general theories) in everyday language and shows how Einstein’s remarkable ideas are being confirmed today by astronomical observations. He concludes with four reasons why relativity should matter to everyone.
Now Appearing at a Dwarf Planet Near You: NASA’s Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt
April 8, 2015
Dr. Marc Rayman (Jet Propulsion Labs)
Listen (mp3 file, 44.3 MB)
Dr. Rayman, the Mission Director for the Dawn exploration of Vesta and Ceres, explains the unusual mission (the first to orbit two different bodies in the solar system), what it found at Vesta, and what it is going to do as it gets to Ceres, the largest asteroid and the first dwarf planet discovered. He also gives a behind-the-scenes tour of the Dawn launch and the ion propulsion that allows it to visit multiple targets.
The Sentinel Mission: Finding the Asteroid Headed for Earth
March 4, 2015
Dr. Ed Lu (Former NASA Astronaut; CEO of the Sentinel Mission)
Listen (mp3 file, 46.8 MB)
Asteroids, which hit our planet at least twice each year, are the only natural disaster for which we have a technological solution. We are all living with the threat of a 3-minute experience that could transform our lives and our planet forever. Scientists have found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects, yet there are an estimated one million in our inner solar system, and the vast majority of the threatening ones are still undiscovered. In this non-technical talk, Ed Lu describe the threat, and discusses the Sentinel Mission, an orbiting telescope to detect and track asteroids that cross EarthтАЩs orbit.
