The Famous Astronomer Will Speak at Victor Valley College Friday Night – News – vvdailypress.com

Astronomer Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute will tell the story of his New Horizons science team when he talks about "Bringing your family to Ultima Thule, a billion miles away from Pluto! Friday night at Victor Valley College.

What should be a fascinating conversation will take place at 7 pm. Friday at the Victor Valley College Performing Arts Center, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville. The entrance and parking are free and the public is welcome to attend.

Showalter will give a world-class presentation on NASA's mission, New Horizons, which has encountered an object in space colder and older than any other humanity.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft left Earth in 2006 for Pluto and beyond. Pluto's flyby in 2015 revealed an unimaginable world of pristine planes, frozen ice volcanoes and glaciers in frozen nitrogen. The probe also traveled to the Kuiper Belt, the "freezing chest" of the solar system composed of small bodies left from the time the solar system was formed.

On the eve of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the New Horizons spacecraft will complete its mission by providing humankind with a first-hand look at a small body located in the Kuiper Belt, revealing what looks like these distant worlds for the first time.

Showalter studies the dynamics of rings and small moons in the solar system. Renowned for his persistence in the analysis of planetary images, his early work on Voyager's data uncovered the weak and outer rings of Jupiter and the tiny lunar circle of Saturn, Pan. As of 2003, Showalter's work with the Hubble Space Telescope has resulted in the discovery of "Mab" and "Cupid", small Uranus moons now named in honor of characters from theater plays. Shakespeare.

Showalter's work also revealed two weak outer rings of dust surrounding the planet. In 2011, he launched a Hubble-based observing program for Pluto, which resulted in the discovery of two tiny moons. Their names, "Kerberos" and "Styx" were selected as part of an international naming campaign. More recently, Showalter discovered the 14th known moon of Neptune. He is co-investigator of NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn.

For more information on the appearance of Showalter at VVC, visit the Victor Valley College website: www.vvc.edu/ultimathule