Technology in Earth Orbit and Beyond
Channel: Astronomy On Tap Seattle
Date: 2022-05-26

THIS MONTH we're back at our original Astronomy on Tap location, now known as Bickersons Brewhouse. Still 8pm, still the same great astronomy talks! First, Dr. Meredith Rawls will talk about her work addressing the growing number of satellites around Earth and how that affects astronomy. Then, Dr. James Davenport will talk about how he's looking for signs of intelligent life on other planets!

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Speaker 1: Dr. Meredith Rawls
Title: My God, It's Full of Satellites

Dr. Meredith Rawls is a research scientist in the Department of Astronomy and DiRAC Institute at UW. She writes software and data pipelines to handle terabytes of nightly images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will produce the highest-resolution movie of the night sky ever made. Her background is in stellar astrophysics, and she earned her Ph.D. from New Mexico State University. Lately, she studies the plethora of newly-launched commercial satellites in the hopes observers worldwide don't lose the sky. She has served on and chaired working groups and co-authored reports for multiple workshops on astronomy and satellite constellations, and is spearheading the SatHub initiative at the new International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference.

Speaker 2: Dr. James Davenport
Title: ET in 30 minutes or your money back
Dr. James Davenport is a research professor of Astronomy, and the Associate Director of the DiRAC Institute, at the University of Washington. His research focuses on small stars in large datasets. In his spare time, James looks for unique midcentury garage doors.