Weekly Space Hangout – June 16, 2017: Dr. Natalie Batalha and NASA’s NExSS

Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain)

Special Guest:
Dr. Natalie Batalha is an astrophysicist at NASA Ames Research Center and project scientist for NASA’s Kepler Mission. Dr. Batalha leads the effort to understand planet populations in the galaxy based on Kepler’s discoveries, and in 2015 she joined the leadership team of NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science Coalition (NExSS,) a multidisciplinary team dedicated to searching for evidence of life beyond the Solar System as well as understanding the diversity of exoplanetary worlds and which of these worlds are most likely to harbor life.

On Monday, June 19, there will be a media event for ExoPlanet Week and NExSS, Kepler and K2! You can watch live-stream of briefing here. For a calendar of public ExoPlanet events in the Bay Area next week, check here.

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Guests:
Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter)

Their stories this week:
Weighing a White Dwarf
Hottest Planet Ever
Spotting a Hidden Black Hole
Do we live in a void?

We use a tool called Trello to submit and vote on stories we would like to see covered each week, and then Fraser will be selecting the stories from there. Here is the link to the Trello WSH page (http://bit.ly/WSHVote), which you can see without logging in. If you’d like to vote, just create a login and help us decide what to cover!

Announcements:

The WSH recently welcomed back Mathew Anderson, author of “Our Cosmic Story,” to the show to discuss his recent update. He was kind enough to offer our viewers free electronic copies of his complete book as well as his standalone update. Complete information about how to get your copies will be available on the WSH webpage – just visit http://www.wsh-crew.net/cosmicstory for all the details.

If you would like to join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew, visit their site here and sign up. They’re a great team who can help you join our online discussions!

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast with Dr. Pamela Gay. Here's a link to my Mastodon account.