What’s Happening on our Planet Today?

Would you like to learn more about what is happening on our planet, as well as about planetary exploration and the mysteries of our universe? In partnership with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, we have scheduled a fantastic line-up of public programs for 2011 that will delve into topics such as black holes, the Sun, using remote sensing to predict disease outbreaks, Desert RATS program, and mapping the moon (with WALL-E!). We frequently have fun handouts and posters from NASA, as well as books and other materials on display from the Library’s collections that reflect the speakers’ topics.

Our 2011 series is as follows:

• 2/16 Gamma Ray Bursts and the Birth of Black Holes presented by Neil Gehrels
•  3/17 The Many Colors of the Sun presented by Dean Pesnell
•  5/18  Predicting Disease Outbreaks from Space presented by Assaf Anyamba
•  6/20 Technology with NASA’s Desert RATS presented by Jacob Bleacher
•  9/24  Mapping the Moon with WALL-E and Children presented by Marci Delaney

 This is our fifth year partnering with Goddard to share NASA research and technology with the public. If you cannot make it to Capitol Hill to attend our events, you can watch the past NASA events via web cast.

But wait! There’s more!

We also offer lectures on other popular scientific topics such as food history and nutrition. On occasion we sponsor book signings. On April 8 we will be hosting a lecture and book signing for David W. Jourdan’s new book The Deep Sea Quest for Amelia Earhart (Cape Porpoise, ME, Ocellus, c2010).

 For more details about our lunchtime lectures see our “What’s for Lunch?” post.