<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;"><span style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Public Lecture<br><br>Dr. Brent Miszalski, a SALT Research Fellow will give a free public lecture at S.A. Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town on Saturday, June 9 at 20h00. He will talk about "Planetary nebulae". If the weather is good, there will be stargazing through the historical McClean telescope and small telescopes.</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;">Abstract:</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;">At the end of their lives, stars like the </span><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;" class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT2483_com_zimbra_date"><span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT2484_com_zimbra_date">sun</span></span><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"> will eject most of their atmosphere to create spectacular cosmic butterflies called planetary nebulae. At their heart lies a very hot star that ionises leftover gas to reveal an amazing variety of shapes. These shapes range from perfectly spherical bubbles, to butterfly-like shapes with multiple ejected lobes, and double-lobed nebulae with highly collimated jet-like outflows. Exactly how these shapes are formed is the subject of an intense scientific debate spanning thirty years. Recently, it has become increasingly clear that binary stars are the preferred explanation to this vexing problem. During his talk, Dr. Miszalski will give an overview of planetary nebulae and recent work aimed towards finding their binary central stars.</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>