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ExoComets: Now You See Them, Now You Don’t | SF

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Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm | Cost: FREE
San Francisco Amateur Astronomers | 50 Moraga Ave, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA

Event Details

Bay Area Science Events

This event is curated by the Bay Area Science Festival as part of their year-round calendar of science events.

The festival takes place each fall with 10 days of science and technology lectures, games, exhibits, workshops and hands-on activities all over the Bay Area. 

> Find tons more Bay Area science events at bayareascience.org

Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Bay Area Science Events

Minor bodies such as Kuiper Belt Objects, comets and asteroids constitute the rocky, icy debris left over from the planet building phase of our solar system. The existence of reservoirs of small rocky bodies (i.e. asteroids/planetesimals) in orbit around young stellar systems is now well established. The initial proto- planetary disks that contain the reservoir of dust and gas required to to form exoplanets are short lived (<<1Myr). The circumstellar debris disk observed around young stars of ages 10-50 Myr are continually replenished by collision and evaporation amongst planetesimals. The gravitational field can potentially enable large numbers of kilometer-sized icy bodies into trajectories directed toward the young central star.

Using high resolution spectrographs mounted on large aperture ground based telescopes, we have discovered 15 young stars that harbor swarms of exocomets. This lecture will describe attributes of comets in our solar system, and observing techniques to detect evaporating exocomets around young stars. The relevance of Kepler’s discovery of “Tabby’s Star” will also be discussed.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: FREE
Categories: Geek Event, Lectures & Workshops
Address: 50 Moraga Ave, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA