Now Available: 30 Free Lectures by Noted Astronomers

By Nancy Atkinson - August 17, 2011 at 6:33 PM UTC | Site News
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We just received a note from Andrew Franknoi and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific that they are making available, free of charge, 30 audio and video podcasts from talks given by distinguished astronomers on the latest ideas and discoveries in the field. Speakers include:

  • Frank Drake, who began the experimental search for intelligent life among the stars,
  • Mike Brown, who discovered most of the dwarf planets beyond Pluto (and whose humorous talk is entitled "How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming"),
  • Natalie Batalha, project scientists on the Kepler Mission to find Earths around other stars,
  • Alex Filippenko (national professor of the year) on finding black holes.

Recent topics added to the offerings include: multiple universes, Saturn's moon Titan (with an atmosphere, rivers, and lakes), our explosive Sun, and whether we should expect doomsday in 2012.

The talks are part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, jointly sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Center, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the SETI Institute, and Foothill College. They are available via the web and ITunes. For a complete list and to begin listening, go to:

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com