Regular Meeting

Everyone is welcome at the free regular meeting of the Nanaimo Astronomy Society. Come out and meet others like yourself who are curious to learn about the night sky.

Presentation

This month's presentation is "The Potential For Planet Formation In The Orion Nebula" with Dr. Rita K. Mann.

Circumstellar disks surrounding young stars represent the birth sites of planets. Their fundamental properties, such as mass and size, critically influence whether planets can form in them. Most disk studies to date have focused on nearby star forming regions like Taurus and rho Ophiuchus, however, stars rarely form in such isolated regions. Most stars, including our own Sun, form in massive star forming regions like the Orion Nebula, and therefore it is important to understand disk properties and evolution in such environments. In this talk, Dr. Mann will review our current understanding of how planets form and what recent observations of disks are revealing about the planet formation potential in the Orion Nebula.

Bio: Rita Mann received her Honours BSc in physics and astronomy from the University of Victoria in 2004. She then moved to Honolulu where she completed her MSc and PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Hawaii. In September 2010, she began her first postdoctoral position, as a Plaskett Fellow at the NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria. Rita's main research interests lie in planet formation; in particular, she uses high-resolution, submillimeter wavelength observations of protoplanetary disks to understand their fundamental properties and evolution, and their potential to form planets.

Show & Tell

At each of our meeting, one of our members will bring a different piece of telescope equipment and explain its workings to us.

Shop & Swap

Have extra equipment to sell or swap? Our members are welcome to bring their equipment to our Shop & Swap table where members and visitors can view and buy telescopes, eyepieces, binoculars and other equipment. Nanaimo Astronomy Society is not responsible for your purchases and offers no warranties.

Cost

This session is free, but donations for our outreach program gratefully accepted. Coffee, tea and cookies available for a modest donation.

For more information, visit http://NanaimoAstronomy.com