[AstroNet] What's up at the Observatory this Saturday

[Thembela Mantungwa]

Rudi Kuhn a PhD student at UCT will give a free public lecture at S.A. Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town this Saturday, April 14 at 20h00. The topic of his talk is one that occupies many people's minds, the wonder about the possibility of life in other planets : "Is there somebody out there? Exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life" 
After the talk, there will be tours of the site and stargazing if the weather is good. 

Summary of his talk: 
The search for planets outside of our solar system is one of the most exciting fields in astronomy at present, and it will perhaps one day answer the question of whether or not we are alone in the universe. Although, searching for alien worlds dates back to ancient times, the techniques needed to detect them have only recently been developed with the first extrasolar planet (exoplanet) being discovered in 1992. To date, there are 763 Exoplanets presently known, with many hundreds still in the pipeline to be confirmed. Recent research has even revealed that almost every star in the Milky Way Galaxy is home to at least one planet. This means that our galaxy might contain at least 100 billion planets. 

In his talk, Rudi Kuhn will discuss the different methods astronomers use to find exoplanets and he will also be looking at ways in which we may one day use to be able to tell if life exists on those far away planets. 


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Regards 

Thembela Mantungwa 
S.A. Astronomical Observatory 
Tel: 021 460 9319 
Fax: 086 612 7502 
Email: tm at saao.ac.za 
Website: www.saao.ac.za / www.salt.ac.za 


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