Speaker: Tom Field, President Field Tested Systems LLC, Contributing Editor, Sky & Telescope Magazine

Topic: “You can almost touch the stars”. Astronomers have learned an enormous amount about stars by spectroscopy. This talk, with lots of interesting examples, will show you what it’s all about and help you understand how spectroscopy is used in research. Even if you are an armchair astronomer, understanding this field will enhance your understanding of the things your read and the night sky.

Speaker: Mr. James Renn, Member of the Vatican Observatory Foundation Board of Directors, Staff at the Walker Star Barn Planetarium in Cave Creek.

Topic: “The Vatican Observatory and the Big Bang”: The presentation begins with a short history of the legacy of the Vatican Observatory, which dates to 1582. It identifies notable members connected to the Observatory, beginning with Christopher Clavius and the 1582 calendar reform, The talk refers to the trial of Galileo as an example of conflict between faith and science, and mentions Angelo Secchi, a founding father of astrophysics. The lecture then discusses Fr. George LeMaitre, who used Einsteins equations to propose a theory of the origin of the Universe we now call “The Big Bang”. This is followed by a short overview of the present state of the Universe and how how the name “Big Bang” was coined by Professor Fred Hoyle in 1949. Finally, the presenter discusses philosophical concepts that personal at the Vatican encounter when they discuss the evolution of the Universe.

“Volcanism in the Solar System”.

Speaker: Dr. Rosaly M. C. Lopes,Senior Research Scientist at JPL and Editor-in-Chief of the planetary journal Icarus. Her research expertise is on planetary geology and volcanology and she has studied Mars, Io, and Titan. She was a member of Galileo’s Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team from 1991-2003 and of the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper (2003-2019). She is the PI of the NASA Astrobiology Institute project “Habitability of Hydrocarbon Worlds: Titan and Beyond”. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of America, and the American Geophysical Union. She has received several awards including the Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society, the Ambassador Award from the American Geophysical Union, and two NASA Exceptional Public Service Medals. Her discovery of 71 active volcanoes on Io led to her being included in the 2006 Guinness Book of World records as the discoverer of the most active volcanoes anywhere.

Speaker: Dr. Melissa A.Morris a Senior Support Scientist with ASRC Federal and NASA.

Topic: Update on the OSIRIS REx Mission. OSIRIS Rex seeks answers to the questions that are central to the human experience: Where did we come from? What is our destiny? Asteroids, the left over debris from the solar system formation process, can answer these questions and teach us about the history of the sun and planets. OSIRIS REx will journey to the asteroid Bennu, map it and gather a physical sample and return the sample to earth.