June 18, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Heidi Hammel, Executive Vice President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, will be treating us to a discussion of what we have seen and how much we've been able to learn about our Solar System over the past 20 years with the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to provide clear deep views of distant galaxies, but it has had a major impact in every area of astronomy, including studies of our solar system. Hubble's high-resolution visible images of planets, moons, comets, and asteroids can only be surpassed by pictures taken from spacecraft that actually visit these destinations. Hubble even has one advantage over spacecraft: it can look at these objects over much longer periods (many years) than any passing probe could. Hubble has observed all the planets in our Solar System except for Earth and Mercury (Earth is far better studied by geologists on the ground and specialized probes in orbit, and Hubble can't observe Mercury because it is too close to the Sun). Dr. Heidi Hammel, a long-time user of Hubble for planetary studies, will give us a broad overview of the many observations Hubble has made: colliding comets; active aurorae; Martian storms; moons of distant Pluto; dynamic Neptune; and much more.

Astronomer Heidi Hammel is a self-professed Hubble Hugger and long-time Hubble user. She has been profiled by the New York Times and Newsweek Magazine, and was identified as one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover Magazine in 2002.

Target Audience: older students and adults; about 1 hour.

Our capacity is 58 seats. We set aside 20 seats to accommodate those who arrive without a reservation, so if the show is sold out you can still try to attend by arriving close to 7 p.m. However, although we will do whatever we can to seat all comers, there is no guarantee of admission without a reservation.