July is Astronomy month and we’re featuring one of our astronomical partners: The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The ASP has been around a whopping 120 years and they are celebrating with their annual meeting in Millbrae. This year’s theme is Science Education and Outreach: Forging a Path to the Future.

ASP regularly holds local events in the Bay Area (under the guise of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures). They podcast many of the lectures including a popular lecture making the Bay Area rounds:

Dr. Patricia Burchat (Stanford University): “The Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy”
In the last decade or so, astronomers have been forced to accept two mysterious observations. About a quarter of the universe is made of “dark matter,” which attracts things with its gravity, but is otherwise invisible. And roughly two-thirds of the universe is composed of “dark energy,” which causes space itself to expand at an ever-increasing rate. That means only a small fraction of the universe is made of ordinary matter — the stuff we understand! In this non-technical presentation, Dr. Burchat explores the evidence for the dark side of the cosmos, and the experiments that are being developed to investigate it further..

You can sign up to receive advance e-mail notification of each lecture by clicking here.