“Pluto, Ceres, and Below: What is a Planet?”

In summer 2015 we got our first (and probably only, in your lifetime) close-up  look at Pluto. It was a good year for dwarf planets, since we also visited the warm one: Ceres. Professor Basri will talk about Pluto’s history as a planet (or not), and why it has had a rough time. He will then talk about what we learned at Pluto (so far), compared with Triton (a similar body) and Ceres (a rather different case).

Dr. Gibor Basri is a Professor of Astronomy at University of California, Berkeley. He received his B.S. in Physics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Basri is a discoverer and an expert on brown dwarfs. He has primarily used the Lick Observatory and the 10-meter Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea. He has also utilized space telescopes including the International Ultraviolet Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Kepler Mission (which produced the knowledge that planets are very common). Dr. Gibor Basri was Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion for eight ground-breaking years at UC Berkeley, leading the campus in developing the UC Berkeley Strategic Plan for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity: Pathway to Excellence �" one of the most comprehensive plans of its kind at a research university. …

Social Hour: Enjoy free snacks after the talk. Also,free raffle for $25 Frys Electronics Gift Card from WeMo Connect.

Public Stargazing Night: Enjoy a free public stargazing session after the talk at the Montgomery Hill Observatory of Evergreen Valley College from 8:30 pm to 10 pm.

Free parking in the parking lot #6 for this event.

See website for more details