<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">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</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">: "Is there somebody out there? Exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life"</span><br style="font-weight: bold; font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">After the talk, there will be tours of the site and stargazing if the weather is good.</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Summary of his talk:</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">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.</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">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.</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><br><div><span name="x"></span><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">-- </span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Regards</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Thembela Mantungwa</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">S.A. Astronomical Observatory</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Tel: 021 460 9319</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Fax: 086 612 7502</span><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"></span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Email: tm@saao.ac.za</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">Website: www.saao.ac.za / www.salt.ac.za</span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;" name="x"></span><br style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"></div><br></div></body></html>