The Cassini spacecraft has just entered its fifth year exploring the planet Saturn, its rings, and its large family of moons, including Titan.

This Wednesday astronomer Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on Saturn’s Restless Rings: Latest Results from the Cassini Mission.

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft launched on October 15, 1997 began its 7-year journey to Saturn arriving on July 1, 2004.

The Cassini-Huygens program is an international cooperative effort involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian space agency, as well as several separate European academic and industrial contributors.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is the first to explore the Saturn system of rings and moons from orbit. The European Space Agency’s Huygens Probe landed on Titan in January 2005. Instruments on both spacecraft are providing scientists with vital data and the best views ever.

Cassini has been making numerous orbits of Saturn, flybys of Titan along with flybys of some of the other moons.

Saturn’s rings, believed to be made of pieces of shattered moons, comets and asteroids, are the most extensive and complex ring system in our solar system, extending hundreds of thousands of miles from the planet.

Dr. Mark Showalter, whose research focuses primarily on ring-moon systems, will share some of the pictures from Saturn and take a close-up look at the “lord of the rings.”

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.
Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick theatre.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills

Wednesday, November 12
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Admission: Free
Parking: $2.00

650-949-7888

nasa.gov

This Wednesday physicist Leonard Susskind of Stanford University will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on The Black Hole Wars: My Battle with Stephen Hawking. No background in science will be required for this talk or having seen Disney’s The Black Hole.

For two decades, physicist Susskind battled cosmologist Stephen Hawking over the behavior of black holes.

Hawking’s theory is that when information falls into a black hole it is permanently lost to the outside; also, that black holes evaporate. It happens very slowly but the black hole does emit particles, and eventually disappears.

Susskind’s theory is that the horizon of a black hole (a two dimensional surface like a film) somehow stores all the information that ever fell into the hole. He also theorizes the photons and other particles carry away every bit of information during evaporation of the black hole.

Stephen Hawking now agrees that the information is not lost when a black hole evaporates.

This is a non-technical talk but how can you not be excited about particle physics, event horizons, quantum mechanics, and holographic principles?

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.
Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick theatre.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills

Wednesday, October 1
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Admission: Free
Parking: $2.00

650-949-7888

The Smithsonian Magazine is hosting a Free Museum Day across the nation this Saturday, Sept. 27. And plenty of Bay Area museums are participating, like:

• Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education in San Mateo
• Peninsula Museum of Art in Belmont
• The Exploratorium in San Francisco
• Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley
  
• Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek
• Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos
• Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek

All you have to do is fill out this card for your free admission.

I confess, I didn’t know half of these museums existed until just now, so if the Smithsonian’s sole goal is to expose the public to museums, it already worked.

There’s more on this California list of participating museums, including some heavy-hitters like the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A. and Mission San Juan Capistrano. Or you can find other museums nationwide that are participating, including (obviously) all the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C.

It’s unfortunate to not see any San Jose city museums participating, but such is life. I know of at least one SJ museum that will be very busy this weekend.

Credit: NASA

On Saturday, September 06, NASA Ames will host another “Return to the Moon Family Night” at their Research Center.

The event will highlight the roles of NASA and Ames Research Center in conducting robotic missions slated for launch in 2009 that include the identification of water on the moon and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission is designed to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s South Pole.

Activities and exhibits include:

• animated videos
• moon rocks display
• robotic rover demonstrations
• kids activities
• telescope viewing of the lunar surface
• presentations by LCROSS experts and scientists

NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Boulevard, Moffett Field

Saturday, September 06
3:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Free admission

In addition, remember the upcoming Sally Ride Science Festival for 5th to 8th grade girls.

Sally Ride Science Festival is where girls, parents, and teachers attend workshops, meet scientists, and have fun at the street fair.

The Science Festival is designed for 5th to 8th grade girls. Parents and teachers are welcome. Please read the FAQ here.

The festival features workshops for students given by local scientists and engineers including chemists, veterinarians, microbiologists, and others; there will be workshops for parents and teachers on ways to support students’ interests in science and math; also, a street fair with booths, hands-on activities, food, and music. There will also be a talk by astronaut Wendy Lawrence.

Wendy Lawrence is a veteran of 4 space shuttle missions and was an astronaut for 14 years. Her space missions included a shuttle flight that carried a set of telescopes to study the stars, 2 space shuttle trips to rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir, and most recently the space shuttle’s return to space after the Columbia accident. She is also an Ocean Engineer.

Sally Ride is the first American woman to fly in space. She was aboard the space shuttle Challenger that launched from Kennedy Space Center, on June 18, 1983. NASA selected Sally Ride as an astronaut candidate in January 1978. While in training, she worked on development of the shuttle’s robot arm, and worked in mission control as a capsule communicator. Long an advocate for improved science education, Sally Ride has written six science books for children. She also initiated and directed education projects designed to fuel middle school students fascination with science.

Advance registration is required and is $20 (includes the featured talk, workshops, lunch, and the Street Fair).

Sally Ride Science Festival information and registration

Sally Ride Science Festival
NASA Ames Research Center

Saturday, September 27
11:00 am - 1:00 pm Check-in, Lunch, Street Fair
1:00 pm - 4:15 pm Featured Talk, Workshops, Street Fair