General Meeting: Planet Earth, Past and Present: Parallels Between our World and its Celestial Neighbors

Name: General Meeting: Planet Earth, Past and Present: Parallels Between our World and its Celestial Neighbors
Start: 2024-05-06
End: 2024-05-06
Location: Peter Claver Hall

Open to members and non-members alike, the Monthly General Meetings feature club announcements, member observing reports, and a headline guest speaker. Typically hailing from one of Colorado’s many science or technical organizations, speakers share their experiences on a wide range of astronomy topics.

Presentation:
In his newest book, Michael Carroll shows us how the Earth is not the planet it was, and it’s not the planet it will be. Throughout its 4.5 billion-year history, our home world has endured rains of asteroids and comets and watched as its climate morphed from tropical conditions to wintry “snowball” phases. Its early surface conditions may have resembled Venus at one time and Mars at another. The Earth evolved in early atmospheres quite different from the one we breathe in today. Its biological processes—unique in our solar system—might have begun in a very alien environment that carried out chemical processes similar to those found on Saturn’s planet-sized moon Titan. Using spectacular photos and astronomical art, This month’s speaker, Michael Carroll, invites you to adventure across the solar system and back through time! He’ll bring books you can purchase onsite and have signed in person, along with space art for any collectors interested (small prints and original sketches for his newest book).

Our speaker:
Mike’s newest book (his 34th) is “Planet Earth, Past and Present: Parallels Between our World and its Celestial Neighbors” (Springer 2023). He is an author, artist, and international lecturer. His articles and paintings have appeared in hundreds of magazines, including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Ciel et Espace, Time, etc. In the 2015/16 season, he explored Antarctica’s active volcano, Mt Erebus, to study analogs of ice moons there. One of his paintings is on the surface of Mars—in digital form—aboard the Phoenix lander. Carroll is a Fellow and founding member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and a recipient of the Lucien Rudaux Award for lifetime accomplishment in the astronomical arts. He also voluntarily eats orange marshmallow circus peanuts, which may or may not be food.

Location: In-person at Regis University’s Peter Claver Hall, Room 315.
Meeting attendees can arrive at Regis starting at 6:30 p.m.
* Park in Lot 4, Lowell Boulevard, between 52nd and 53rd Avenue

For those unable to attend in person, the meeting will also be available via Zoom. The Zoom link will be posted closer to the event.

The event is finished.

Date

May 06 2024

Expired!

Time

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Location

Peter Claver Hall

Peter Claver Hall, 3333 Regis Blvd, Denver, CO 80221, USA