Speaker: Dr. Thomas Mozdzen (Assistant Research Scientist at ASU and Vice President of East Valley Astronomy Club).

Topic: “Recent efforts at ASU to find evidence of when the first stars formed”. What were those first stars like and when did they form? How did they affect the rest of the universe? Dr Mozdzen will discuss how a new research tool named EDGES will help describe the creation of galaxies, the strength of the X rays from their central black holes, and the interaction with the cold clouds of primordial hydrogen.

Speaker: Dr. David Williams from ASU
Topic: “Exploring Ocean Worlds”. This talk will discuss the evidence for ‘ocean worlds… worlds in our Solar System beyond Earth that appear to have liquid water oceans in their interiors. What do we know about them? What do they imply for exoplanets, and life elsewhere in the Universe?

“New Telescopes that will Expand Hubble’s Frontier”.

Speaker: Dr. Rogier A. Windhorst from ASU. Dr. Windhorst is an astronomer and a professor of physics and astronomy at Arizona State University and formally presided over The School of Earth and Space Exploration. His research lies in astronomy, cosmology, galaxy formation and evolution. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, his group at ASU has contributed significantly to unraveling the formation and evolution of distant galaxies. His research has led to new understandings of how the universe first began. He also studies black holes and he is the principal investigator of the Hubble Space Telescope mid-UV bright galaxy survey.

Speaker – Dr. Alex Vrenios.

Topic – “Radio Astronomy”. Beginning with a brief history of Radio Astronomy, he discusses the subjects of Solar Energy, Jupiter’s Radio Storms, Meteor Scatter Communications, Galactic Radio Sources and finally… how to create radio images.

Dr. Vrenios is a retired computer scientist who specialized in the design and development of distributed computing systems. He has dozens of technical presentations and publications to his credit, including a book on Linux clusters. His other interests include astronomy, photography and amateur radio. The program. For other material by him on the subject see:: Conference Paper, Radio Sky Article, and Amateur Radio Astronomy.

Speaker: Dr. Steve Ruff – ASU School of Earth & Space Exploration. A planetary geologist with a focus on the mineralogy of Mars determined via infrared spectroscopy.

Topic: “Updates from the Surface of Mars”. Dr. Ruff discussed recent happenings at the surface of Mars concerning rovers and landers, and a look at the future of Mars exploration. Dr Ruff also reported on the final months of the Opportunity rover’s nearly 15 year mission; the recent activities of the Curiosity rover; the new Insight lander mission; and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission.