Wonderfest: Astronomy for Planet Earth

 

The past few decades of astronomical discovery have been breathtaking: thirty years of awe-inspiring images from two Space Telescopes (Hubble & Webb), thousands of planets found circling nearby stars, mind-bending and spacetime-bending gravity waves and, quite recently, a stunning image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. What is the value of all of these discoveries? Can learning about our place in the Universe inspire us, as Carl Sagan put it, to preserve and cherish the Pale Blue Dot?

Speaker: Adrienne Cool, San Francisco State University