Free Public Talk on Exploding Stars, New Planets, and the Crisis at Lick Observatory

Dr. Alex
Filippenko (of the University of California, Berkeley) will give a free,
illustrated, non-technical talk on: 



Exploding
Stars, New Planets, Black Holes, and the
Crisis at Lick Observatory

in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos.  The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture
Series, now in its 14th year.

Lick Observatory, the first
remote mountaintop observatory in the world, has had a remarkable record of
discovery spanning 126 years. It continues to be a vibrant research facility,
especially for projects that require large numbers of nights on modest-size
telescopes. Come hear about the exciting research areas in which Lick remains a
world leader, such as the discovery and monitoring of exploding stars (which
help us understand our own chemical origins as well as the ultimate fate of the
universe); the search for planets orbiting other stars, especially Earth-like
planets; and the study of giant black holes in the centers of nearby galaxies.

 Lick is used to develop and test
new instruments, such as the “adaptive optics” systems that can give telescopes
on Earth clarity that matches or exceeds that of the Hubble Space
Telescope.  Lick is also a primary base
for the University of California’s astronomy education and outreach
efforts.  Yet, despite all this, the UC
Office of the President has decided that the university’s funding for Lick will
be terminated by 2016−2018, given the financial
pressures on UC.  This crisis has
inspired a group of Silicon Valley and Bay Area leaders to begin a serious
search for alternative sources of funding to sustain this vital Bay Area
institution.  Come find out, from the
President of the Lick Observatory Council, what Lick is all about and why we
need to keep it going!

 Dr. Alex Filippenko, the Richard
& Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences at UC
Berkeley, is a world-renowned expert on some of the most dramatic fields in
astronomy, including exploding stars, black holes, and cosmology.  An elected member of the National Academy of
Sciences, he was the only person to have been a member of both teams that
revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. This discovery,
based in part on work done by him at Lick Observatory and elsewhere, was
honored with the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics to the teams’ leaders. Voted the
“Best Professor” on the Berkeley campus a record 9 times, he was also named the
2006 Carnegie/CASE National Professor of the Year at the university level. He
has produced 5 astronomy video courses with The Great Courses, coauthored an award-winning astronomy textbook, and
appears in about 100 TV documentaries. In 2004, he was awarded the Carl Sagan
Prize for Science Popularization.

Foothill College is just off the El Monte Road exit from Freeway 280 in Los
Altos.  For directions and parking information, see: http://www.foothill.edu/news/transportation.php

For a campus map, see: http://www.foothill.edu/news/maps.php



The lecture is co-sponsored by:

* NASA Ames Research Center

* The Foothill College Astronomy Program

* The SETI Institute

* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.



We expect large crowds, so we ask people to try to arrive a little bit early to
find parking.  The lecture is free, but there is a charge of $3 for
parking on campus and exact change is appreciated.