Church of the Cosmos Wednesday Night Screening + Discussion
Details
Greetings Fellow Cosmonauts!
Please join us VIRTUALLY tonight (Wednesday, May 27th) for the 5th installment in our 6-week series Experiencing James Webb: The Invisible Universe Revealed.
Tonight we will watch 2 lectures focused on using the James Webb telescope to investigate our solar system and how the James Webb telescope could detect life.
A summary of tonight's features is below:
Using Webb to Investigate Our Solar System
Webb’s unrivalled optics take us to the farthest reaches of the universe, but they also let us explore worlds in our own backyard. Journey through the Solar System, from Neptune—where infrared views reveal features Voyager 2 missed in 1989—to Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, plus icy moons such as Enceladus and Europa, whose hidden oceans of liquid water raise intriguing possibilities for life.
How Webb Could Detect Life
Webb is the first telescope able to probe exoplanet atmospheres for signs of life. Contrast habitability—the baseline conditions for life as we know it—with biosignatures, the chemical clues life might leave behind. Then, see how claims for biosignatures in the atmosphere of Venus may have led astronomers astray, underscoring how difficult this problem is at the far greater distances to exoplanets.
What to Expect
Don't worry if you don't know anything about this subject matter. No prior understanding of astronomy, black holes or dark energy is required to appreciate tonight's programs and to participate in the discussion period.
This is a safe-space for science and for humans who want to talk about science freely.
You're also welcome to join/leave the video chat at your discretion without penalty or comment. Same goes for RSVPs - they're appreciated, but not mandatory.
And don't forget: CotC now has a Discord Server! So the good times can
keep rolling even after the meetup ends!!!
Follow this link to join: https://discord.gg/Jdg3MC5
Now for some administrative details....
I will open up the virtual meeting at 8PM. The viewing will start promptly at 8:25PM. Again, the link to the virtual meet-up room is below:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82231579720
There is an optional suggested donation of $2 which helps pay for our group membership to The Great Courses Plus. You can donate through the following methods:
Venmo: @reece-daniel
Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/reecedaniel
You can also donate through meetup.com, but they take a 17% cut!!
Looking forward to seeing everyone Wednesday!
Regards,
Reece
Curator, Church of the Cosmos
Organizer, SomEV Presents
City Organizer, Meetup-Boston