Astronomy Lecture Explores Black Holes in SpaceMay 19, 20107 to 8:30 p.m.; Smithwick Theatre
World-renowned astronomer Alex Filippenko, Ph.D.
As part of the 11th annual
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, world-renowned astronomer
Alex Filippenko, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley, will discuss
Hearts of Darkness: Black Holes in Space, an illustrated, non-technical lecture,
Wednesday, May 19, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at
Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. Admission is free and the public is invited. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate
parking.
Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that nothing--not even light-can escape. No longer confined to the imaginations of science--fiction writers and theoretical physicists, black holes have recently been discovered in large numbers by observational astronomers. Smaller black holes can form during the deaths of some types of massive stars, and super-massive black holes are found at the centers of many galaxies, including
our own. By attending the lecture, you'll learn about the remarkable properties of these bizarre objects from one of the finest explainers in the field of astronomy.
Filippenko is a world-renowned expert on exploding stars, black holes, gamma-ray bursts, galaxies and
cosmology. Voted the "
best professor" on the UC Berkeley campus seven times and winner of the
2010 Emmons Award for undergraduate teaching, he was also named the
Carnegie/CASE National Professor of the Year in 2006 among doctoral institutions. For his pioneering research, he was elected a member of the
National Academy of Sciences. He recently produced
Black Holes Explained, a 12-lecture DVD video course with
The Teaching Company.
The free lecture series is sponsored by the
Foothill College Astronomy Program,
NASA Ames Research Center,
SETI Institute and
Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Past lectures from the series are
available online in MP3-format.
Visitors must purchase a campus parking permit for $2 from yellow dispensers in student lots.
Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the theatre. For more information, access
www.foothill.edu or call
(650) 949-7888.
Phone us at: (650) 949-7888Click here for more information.Special Notice: Admission is free; parking is $2. Purchase parking permit from dispensers in any student lot.
