A demonstration/lecture featuring constellations, a tour of the outer planets and cryogenics will be held at the University of West Georgia on Friday, May 14 from 7 pm - 8:30 pm in the Crider Math-Physics Lecture Hall.
The presentation is free and open to the public. It's suitable for age 6 years and up.
It will be presented by Dr. Ben DeMayo, professor emeritus of physics.
For more information call 678-839-4087 or 678-839-4097
Please include Pluto with the planets. Only four percent of the IAU voted on this, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern and like-minded scientists favor a broader planet definition that includes any non-self-luminous spheroidal body in orbit around a star. The spherical part is important because objects become spherical when they attain a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning they are large enough for their own gravity to pull them into a round shape. This is a characteristic of planets and not of shapeless asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects. Pluto meets this criterion and is therefore a planet. Under this definition, our solar system has 13 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
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