Recap:
The July meeting of the RAC featured a talk by special guest Dr. Chris Richardson, Assistant Professor of Physics at Elon University. Dr. Richardson gave a lively and engaging presentation about Exoplanets.
He discussed recent results in this popular area of research, especially the enormous amount of data coming from the Kepler Space Telescope. He also discussed the various components of the famous Drake Equation. Dr. Frank Drake created the equation in 1961. It attempts to compute the number of civilizations capable of communicating with other ones (us) in our galaxy. Another civilization in our galaxy would live on an exoplanet.
Some components of the Drake Equation have agreed upon values, while others have only a range of estimated values. Using the values discussed by Dr. Richardson, the resulting Drake Equation produces an interesting result. There is at least a 1 in 60 million chance that Earth has the only civilization in the Milky Way that is capable of communicating with other civilizations. Those are pretty slim odds!
Join us for another exciting meeting of the Raleigh Astronomy Club. We have a wonderful talk followed by the resolution of our constitutional amendment (PLEASE VOTE), final nominations, and elections of officers for the 2016-17 term.
When: July 28, 7pm
Where: Environmental Conference Center, Nature Research Center, NC Museum of Natural Sciences
“Exoplanets: Searching for Another Earth” by Dr. Chris Richardson, Assistant Professor of Physics, Elon University.
Abstract:
Extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, are orbiting stars other than our Sun. In recent years, the discovery of new exoplanets has increased exponentially, placing us at a unique turning point in our understanding of how our world came into existence and how many out there are similar to it. We will review how we currently discover exoplanets and the technique used to reveal their physical properties. A special select few could possibly harbor life given certain circumstances. We will cover those unique circumstances and where we stand as of right now in our search for another Earth.
