Jan. 4, 2014: A Planet for Goldilocks — Kepler Space Mission Update

Jan. 4, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Natalie Batalha, Co-Investigator of NASA’s Kepler Mission. Credit: Dr. Natalie Batalha.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Dr. Natalie Batalha, Co-Investigator of NASA’s Kepler Mission, will be providing an update on the search for undiscovered Earth-like planets.

Title: A Planet for Goldilocks — Kepler’s Search for Potentially Habitable Worlds

Time: 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Bio: Dr. Natalie Batalha is a research astronomer in the Space Sciences Division of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. Dr. Batalha started her career studying young, sun-like stars. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, a doctorate in Astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Inspired by the growing number of exoplanet discoveries, she joined the team led by William Borucki at NASA Ames, working to detect exoplanets using the transit photometry method. Discoveries by the Kepler team have led to a paradigm-shifting boom in exoplanets discoveries during the past few years, and Dr. Batalha is on the front lines of this burgeoning field.

For a sneak preview of Dr. Batalha discussing the search for Earth-sized planets orbiting sun-like stars, check out: this movie.

Here is a poster (938K PDF) advertising this event, suitable for tacking up on bulletin boards or passing out to strangers.

Doors open: 7 p.m. Show begins: 7:30 p.m.