Cline Observatory Open House and Astronomy Lecture (Guilford College)

The First Stars?

What is that red dot seen in the recent James Webb Space Telescope image. One of the first stars, a young black hole, or something even more exotic? These are three of the published suggestions for what it might be. It is more than 13 billion light years away; so very old and very bright. Prof. Thom Espinola will discuss the image, the possible explanations and their background, and why it’s important to astronomers. The event is free, no tickets are required.

On February 28th, we'll host the rescheduled event from January, but we're going to do it a little differently than normal. That night, it might be possible to see six planets and the Moon. Saturn, Mercury, Venus, and Neptune will be setting right after the Sun, and Uranus, Jupiter, and the Moon will be high in the sky. In my experience, the glare of the sunset will make it impossible to see the lower four planets, but we're going to try! If the sky is clear, we'll open up the observatory deck at 6:30 pm. At 7:30, we will move downstairs for Prof. Espinola's lecture on new reports from the James Webb Space Telescope. If it's cloudy, we'll just start with the lecture at 6:30.

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