Keshen Goodman Public Library

Lacewood Drive, Halifax

 

Rob Thacker:    "Aliens—Where Are They?"

Wednesday, September 21 @ 7 pm

 

When it comes to movies, aliens are everywhere. Where it comes to real life, we've not heard a peep. So where are they? How many might be out there? How could we detect them? Astronomers and astrobiologists have thought about these questions for decades, and today we stand at the edge of making some major advances forward. In this fun and thought provoking talk I'll take a look at how we can scientifically go about searching for life on other planets and estimate how likely we are to find something.
 

 
Patrick Kelly: "Finding Exo-Planets"

Wednesday, October 5 @ 7 pm

 Most science fiction relies on planets: Totoonie and Alderaan in Star Wars; Vulcan, Bajor, and Cardassia in Star Trek; Caprica (and the mythical planet "Earth") in Battlestar Galactica. For most of human history, the existence of other planets was either a speculation or a hypothetical reality but with no way to prove they existed. The last 15 years have seen incredible advances that now allow several methods for the detection of planets around other stars. This talk will explain some of these methods, the results, and show how you can keep track of the 700+ planets discovered so far. And yes, "There's an app for that"!