The second talk as part of George Mason Observatory’s ‘Evenings Under the Stars’ series (where you’ll also get to look at awesome galaxies, stars, planets and more through our 0.8 meter telescope!) will be ‘Exoplanets: Worlds Beyond our Solar System’ by Korey Haynes.  As always the event is free and everyone is invited!  Just keep an eye out for weather – the event may be postponed or cancelled due to bad conditions – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

Exoplanets are one of the hottest topics in astronomy right now. In its 3 1/2 year lifetime so far, the Kepler mission alone has found 2,321 planet candidates, with 77 of them confirmed by other programs. Between Kepler and other planet-finding missions, we have discovered everything from planets a few times the size of Jupiter to planets only slightly bigger than Earth, from star systems with only one lonely planet, to systems with as many as five planets. Come learn about how we find exoplanets, some of the biggest discoveries so far, and how we look for the holy grail of exoplanet studies: a habitable, Earth-like planet.

Some early details about the event: Tuesday 25 September 2012: 1st talk at 7:50 PM in Room Research Hall Showcase, same talk at 8 :30 PM, observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM.

Directions to GMU and Research Hall here: http://eagle.gmu.edu/map/fairfax.php  Zoom in to find Research Hall next to engineering building and York River Rd

The Exoplanet Talk/Observing Session Poster