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Upcoming Astronomy Events
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Free Public Talk on the Peril and Profit of Near-Earth Objects
October 11, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PDT
Free
Dr. Robert Jedicke (U of Hawaii) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:
"The Peril and Profit of Near-Earth Objects"
in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos (see directions below)
* We ask that attendees be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 and wear a mask while indoors at the event. Extra masks will be provided. Thank you.
The recording will be on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures
The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, now in its 24th year.
Near-Earth objects present both an existential threat to human civilization and an extraordinary opportunity to help our exploration and expansion across the solar system. The risk of a sudden, civilization-altering collision with an asteroid or comet has markedly diminished in recent decades due to diligent astronomical surveys, but a significant level of danger persists. At the same time, remarkable strides have been made in advancing technologies that pave the way for a new vision of space exploration – one that entails missions and outposts within the inner solar system fueled by resources extracted from asteroids, starting with the most accessible near-Earth objects. These objects contain exploitable extraterrestrial resources delivered to the inner solar system by gravitational perturbations from the planets. And they have been naturally preprocessed into objects the ideal size for industrial operations.
Robert Jedicke has had professional careers in particle physics, astronomy, and software engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Toronto and held post-doctoral positions at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and at the University of Arizona’s Lunar & Planetary Laboratory. At the University of Hawai`i’s Institute for Astronomy for the last 20 years, he managed the development of the Moving Object Processing System for the Pan-STARRS telescope on Maui that is one of the world’s leading discovery systems for asteroids and comets. His current research interests include studying the properties of interstellar objects and developing plans to extract water from asteroids to provide fuel for spacecraft missions.
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/
The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* The Foothill College Science, Tech, Engineering & Math Division
* The SETI Institute
* 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
