Google Sky, Moon and Mars

Dear Google, Sky, Moon and Mars Blog­gers
UCLA Exten­sion presents one-day pro­grams on Physics and Astron­o­my in April and May led by promi­nent sci­en­tists and reserchers — Fer­di­nand Coro­ni­ti, Professor/Chair, Depart­ment of Physics and Astron­o­my, UCLA; and Kevin Gra­zier, PhD, Inves­ti­ga­tion Sci­en­tist, Cassi­ni Mis­sion toSat­urn and Titan, Jet Propul­sion Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Cal­tech.
—

What’s New in Physics 2008
Sat­ur­day, April 12, 2008
9 am to 5 pm
Fee: $65

UCLA Cam­pus
1425 Physics & Astron­o­my Bldg.
405 Hil­gard Avenue
Los Ange­les, CA 90024

Join four promi­nent sci­en­tists as they explore ques­tions and
issues at the fas­ci­nat­ing fron­tiers of research in mod­ern
physics, includ­ing:

-What will the uni­verse look like 150 bil­lion years from now?

-How did we learn about the com­po­si­tion of the uni­verse?

-How does the inner ear detect minute mechan­i­cal sig­nals?

-What is the first step in the pro­cess­ing of audi­to­ry
infor­ma­tion?

-Why is Antarc­ti­ca a spe­cial place to per­form physics and
astron­o­my research?

-How do accel­er­at­ed elec­trons see what has not been seen before?

-Can one recre­ate the Big Bang in a lab­o­ra­to­ry?

From dark mat­ter to the study of high-ener­gy cos­mic par­ti­cles
to research at the inter­face of physics and neu­ro­phys­i­ol­o­gy,
research teams in the UCLA Depart­ment of Physics and Astron­o­my are at the fore­front of our explo­ration of the fun­da­men­tal nature of our uni­verse.

Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor:
Fer­di­nand Coro­ni­ti, Professor/Chair, Depart­ment of Physics and
Astron­o­my, UCLA

Pro­gram and Speak­ers
‑The Dark Side of the Uni­verse: Dark Mat­ter and Dark Ener­gy
with Alexan­der Kusenko, PhD, Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Physics
and Astron­o­my, UCLA;

-Work­ing in Antarc­ti­ca: An Astro­physi­cist’s Jour­ney with David
Saltzberg, PhD, Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Physics and Astron­o­my,
UCLA;

-Bio­physics of Hear­ing with Dolores Bozovic, PhD, Assis­tant
Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Physics and Astron­o­my, UCLA;

-Accel­er­a­tor Physics: New Light Sources and Med­ical Imag­ing
Tech­niques with James Rosen­zweig, PhD, Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of
Physics and Astron­o­my, UCLA.

UCLA Astron­o­my Home­page Images
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/graphics/site/rotation/index.shtml
—–

New
Extremophiles to Exo­plan­ets: Life in the Uni­verse

Sat­ur­day, May 17, 2008
9 am to 5 pm
Fee: $65

UCLA Cam­pus
147 Dodd Hall
405 Hil­gard Avenue
Los Ange­les, CA 90024

Join four promi­nent sci­en­tists work­ing at the cut­ting edge of their respec­tive fields as they exam­ine the search for life with­in the solar sys­tem and through­out the galaxy.

Con­sid­er these ques­tions:

-Could there be life under­neath the icy crust of Jupiter’s
moon, Europa? Per­haps under the sur­face of Sat­urn’s moon,
Titan?

-How is our study of extremophile life forms on Earth affect­ing
our search for life “out there”?

-What life forms exist under extreme envi­ron­ments on Earth and
how do they sur­vive?

-What fas­ci­nat­ing pos­si­ble abodes for life are being dis­cov­ered
by NASA’s Spitzer Space Tele­scope?

-How does the near-dai­ly dis­cov­ery of extra-solar plan­ets
influ­ence our views of the like­li­hood of extra-solar life?

Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor
Kevin Gra­zier, PhD, Inves­ti­ga­tion Sci­en­tist, Cassi­ni Mis­sion to
Sat­urn and Titan, Jet Propul­sion Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Cal­tech.

In addi­tion to his JPL duties, Dr. Gra­zier teach­es sev­er­al
uni­ver­si­ty astron­o­my cours­es, and has served as a sci­ence
advi­sor for the Sci-Fi Chan­nel, CNN, and PBS.

Michelle Thaller, PhD, Research Sci­en­tist, Spitzer Space
Tele­scope, Cal­tech. Dr. Thaller not only per­forms research
based upon Spitzer obser­va­tions, she also is a high­ly sought-
after astro­nom­i­cal out­reach speak­er;

Ken­neth Neal­son, PhD, Wrigley Pro­fes­sor of Geo­bi­ol­o­gy at USC.
An expert on extremophile life forms, Dr. Neal­son stud­ies
organ­isms that live in extreme envi­ron­ments and devel­ops
tech­niques both for in situ life detec­tion and analy­sis of
sam­ples returned from Mars in future mis­sions;

William I. New­man, PhD, Pro­fes­sor in Physics and Astron­o­my,
Earth, and Space Sci­ences, and Math­e­mat­ics at UCLA. Dr. New­man
is an expert in plan­e­tary dynam­ics, teach­es astro­bi­ol­o­gy, and
has writ­ten pro­fes­sion­al pub­li­ca­tions with the late Carl Sagan
on the plau­si­bil­i­ty of extrater­res­tri­al life.

Extremophiles
an organ­ism adampt­ed to liv­ing in con­di­tions of extreme tem­per­a­ture, pres­sure or chem­i­cal con­cen­tra­tion, as in high­ly
acidic or salty envi­ron­ments. Many extremophiles are uni­cel­lu­lar organ­isms knows as archea.

Exo­plan­ets
an extra­so­lar plan­et, or exo­plan­et, is a plan­et beyond the Solar Sys­tem. As of Decem­ber 2007, 270 exo­plan­ets have been
detect­ed. The vast major­i­ty were detect­ed through var­i­ous indi­rect meth­ods rather than actu­al imag­ing. Most of them are mas­sive giant plan­ets like­ly to resem­ble Jupiter.

Vis­it http://www.uclaextension.edu or call 310–825-7093.