Not Quite Alone in a Sea of Stars

With the recent "buzz" surrounding our recent visits to Pluto, Ceres, and the discovery of surface water on Mars, just as The Martian hit the big screen, it is an opportune time to reflect on what we have learned in recent years about our place in the solar system, and our relationship to the tens of billions of other worlds now considered to be our likely neighbors in the Milky Way. In this talk, Eric Harpell will lead us on an exploration of our nearest and farthest neighbor worlds - some seen in detail for the first time - and compare them to the myriad of new planets revealed anew each year through analysis of Kepler space telescope data. Finally, we will explore what this data has shown us about planetary habitability, and what perspective this brings to our prospects and strategies for survival here at home.

Speaker: Eric Harpell, Las Positas College