I’m really excited about this:
Next week, on Friday January 30, I will be moderating a panel of four top-notch astronomers who will be talking about their cutting-edge research. This is a public event held at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Basic info (as well as where to RSVP) can be found on the Hive Overmind Discover Magazine webpage — you can submit questions for the panel there too.
The astronomers are:
1) Mike Brown, who looks for Kuiper Belt Objects, those giant iceballs at the outer edge of the solar system, and was the discoverer of Eris, an object bigger than Pluto;
2) Debra Fischer, who discovers planets orbiting other stars;
3) Andrea Ghez, who studies the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and was largely responsible for determining its mass of 4 million times that of the Sun; and
4) Saul Perlmutter, who led one of the two teams that independently discovered dark energy, the mysterious stuff that is making the cosmic expansion accelerate ever faster (and will win a bunch of people the Nobel prize someday).
How’s that for a lineup! These are four fantastic people. They are not just great scientists, and not just doing incredible work; they are all engaging, fun, and interesting people who will fill your brain with their studies on some of the most interesting objects in the Universe.
And of course, there’ll be me, standing there like the big doofus that I am, making terrible puns and throwing out topics to them in the hope that they’ll run with them. Knowing these four I’ll have no problems at all.
Again, it’s a public event, so if you’re in the area you should really try to come. I guarantee this will be totally cool, and if you read this blog (and I’m guessing you do) I know you’ll love the panel.
There’s more info at the Caltech page, too. And if you can’t make it, don’t despair: the whole thing will be recorded and made available on the DM site.
This event is sponsored by Discover Magazine, the Thirty Meter Telescope project, Caltech, and the National Science Foundation.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:56 am
This sounds really cool. I wished I lived in the area.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:57 am
Oh maaaannn! I wish I could be there!
[pout]
January 21st, 2009 at 8:09 am
SQUEE!!! I saw the post title and immediately went, “OKAY!!!”
This event is going to be so cool! I cannot wait to download the recording!
January 21st, 2009 at 8:31 am
Ask Mike if the local density of dark matter affects the orbits of KBOs!
Dennis
January 21st, 2009 at 9:01 am
When in lovely Pasadena-in-the-Smog, don’t neglect to visit Burger Continental, home of Dr. Stephen Hawking’s favorite belly dancers!
January 21st, 2009 at 10:00 am
Wow, cool meeting. Will it be videocasted or recorded?
January 21st, 2009 at 10:05 am
That sounds like it would be fun. When I read the Mike Brown paragraph, I thought, “That would be neat to hear about,” and kept repeating that thought for each of them. Great lineup!
January 21st, 2009 at 10:10 am
“Explore cosmic limits with me!”
I have a new pick-up line!
January 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Sounds like an absolutely awesome gathering of minds. Sucks that I live about 1,500 miles away
Oh well, video will be good enough.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hah, SeanDudeMan, I have you beat ten-fold,I think I am over 15,000 miles away…
Wish I could be there, let us know if there will be a recording available for download somewhere!
January 21st, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Do any fellow, LA bloggees and/or event participants want to meet up at before and/or after the event?
January 21st, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Do any fellow, LA bloggees and/or event participants want to meet up at Lucky Baldwin’s (on Raymond) before and/or after the event?
~j
January 21st, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Dang! I used to live in Pasadena… actually, about 3 blocks from Caltech! ARGH!
January 28th, 2009 at 9:04 am
[...] a friendly reminder that the public astronomy panel I am moderating, "The Mysteries of the Cosmos", is this Friday at 7:00 on the Caltech campus. I hope to see some BABloggees [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
If I’m not working that night, I am sure gonna try to make it!
January 29th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] Hive Overmind sent me the inside page from the program for the astronomy panel I’m moderating tomorrow. It has bios of me and the four astronomers on the [...]
January 29th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I’m totally going to this. Hurrah for living in LA!
hey, j4yxor, email me at [my name]@gmail.com
January 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
[...] am in Pasadena getting ready for the ultracool astronomy panel tonight, so today will be light blogging from me. In fact, this may be it. So I will lazyblog and send you [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Nice! I think I shall wander over…
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[...] panel, called The Mysteries of the Cosmos, was all about the limits of what we know in astronomy. The panelists — Andrea Ghez, Mike [...]