American Astronomers Meet in St. Louis, May 31 - June 5

Two Free Events Are Open to the Public The American Astronomical Society (AAS) will hold its 212th national meeting in St. Louis, MO, June 1-5, at the St. Louis Convention Center, 701 Convention Plaz

The AAS, the US's major organization of professional astronomers, is meeting in conjunction with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

There will be two Photo Ops of general media interest, five press conferences intended for science journalists, and a press reception for the publication of a new book on the making of the Hubble Space Telescope. All media events are at the Convention Center.

And of course there will be hundreds of science talks and poster papers as astronomers exchange news and ideas about their latest discoveries. (Science sessions are open only to paid attendees and news media.)

One of the main themes of the meeting is the coming International Year of Astronomy (IYA), 2009, when astronomers around the globe will mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope. The leader of the world's astronomers, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky of France, who is President of the International Astronomical Union, will address the conference on plans for the IYA at 11:30 AM CDT, Monday, June 2.

Opening Photo Op: A costumed, bearded, singing, lute-strumming Galileo (actually, a skilled impersonator, the amateur astronomer Mark A. Thompson of Seal Beach, CA) will meet the press at 2:00 PM CDT, Monday, June 2, in Room 130, Convention Center. For a glimpse of what he looks like, in full regalia and in ordinary attire, see his website at http://www.galileo1610.com/markthompson/.

Thompson sings of Galileo's great discoveries to tunes that include music composed by the real Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei (Galileo's full name was Galileo Galilei.)

Milky Way Photo Op: Scientists will reveal a new 180-foot-long color mosaic of our Milky Way Galaxy from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope at 1:20 PM CDT, Tuesday, June 3 in the Exhibit Hall at the Convention Center. Pictures of the mosaic, which is shown for the first time at the conference, will be released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in coordination with the Photo Op and conference attendees will receive poster versions. This event directly follows a science press conference on the Milky Way that begins 12 Noon, June 3, in Room 130. At the press conference, which will be the longest media event (an hour) at the meeting, scientists will describe the Spitzer telescope surveys, announce the apparent solution by Smithsonian astronomers to the decades-long mystery of the so-called "expanding arm" of the Milky Way, and present a new model of what the Milky Way's spiral arm pattern would look like if we were outside our own Galaxy and looking at it face-on. A color, artist's concept of the new model will be released at the briefing, and compared with telescopic images of what may be "look alike" galaxies in distant space.

Opening public event: Persons of all ages are welcome to visit the AstroZone from 12 Noon to 4:00 PM CDT, Saturday, May 31 at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel. The free public event is sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Solar Dynamics Observatory and by the Rochester Institute of Technology Insight Lab. It offers an opportunity for kids and their parents to check out the latest science and technology in Astronomy and Space Research. Attendees can meet scientists and other experts from NASA, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Rice Space Institute, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, SETI Institute and more.

Participants can take a tour of the night sky at Discovery Dome, play with a gravity simulator and design a Solar System at NASA's Kepler Mission, contribute to live podcasts at Astronomy Cast, take a Microsoft and Google tour of Chandra X-Ray Observatory images, design exoplanets and help determine How Big? How Far? and How Old? objects in our universe are. Also, they can enjoy fun family astro games and Night Sky Network demos, take virtual flight through the cosmos in Cosmic Collisions narrated by Robert Redford, become a radio wave detective with at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory exhibit, and experience two planetariums.

The AstroZone public event is organized by Emilie Drobnes of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Dr. Jake Noel-Storr of the Rochester Institute of Technology and supported by the American Geophysical Union.

Public Lecture - Dava Sobel, author of the best-selling books "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter" and a former science writer for the New York Times, will present a non-technical talk on "How Galileo and the Telescope Changed Everything" at 8:00 PM CDT, Monday, June 2 in Room 223 (Ballroom) at the Convention Center. Two episodes of the PBS series NOVA have been based on her books and a third is in production.

Ms. Sobel is currently at work on a stage play about Copernicus. This presentation is part of the Second Century Lectures Program, a continuing series established to celebrate the Centennial of the American Astronomical Society, which occurred in 1999.

Here is a summary of the media events at the AAS meeting: (For more details and press credentials for the meeting contact our Press Officer, Dr. Steve Maran. See the contact block below.)

All events in Convention Center, Room 130 except unveiling of giant mosaic on Tuesday.

All times are Central Daylight Time (CDT).

MONDAY, JUNE 2
9:30 AM Press Conference on Galaxies & Black Holes

11:30 AM Press Conference on Exoplanets & Brown Dwarfs

2:00 PM Musical Photo Op with Mark Thompson, the costumed, singing, lute-playing Galileo impersonator

3:00 PM Press Reception for Robert Zimmerman and his new book, "The Universe in a Mirror - The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It," Princeton U. Press. Attending reporters will receive copies of the book inscribed to them, while supplies last..

TUESDAY, JUNE 3
9:40 AM CDT Press Conference on Weird Binary Stars

12:00 Noon Press Conference on the Milky Way (the anticipated major newsmaking event of the meeting)

1:20 PM Photo Op - Unveiling of 180-foot Spitzer mosaic of the Milky Way, in the Exhibit Hall. AAS meeting press credentials (or registrant's badge) must be presented to enter the Hall.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4

9:30 AM Press Conference on Speculative Astrophysics Includes a new method in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ("SETI"), a report on an ongoing search for dark matter in the Sun, and an account of a project to develop ways to make telescope mirrors from Moon dust.

CONTACT: Dr. Steve Maran, Press Officer of the American Astronomical Society, +1-202-328-2010 x116 (dial 1116 when prompted), steve.maran@aas.org, Starting Friday afternoon, May 30, call Steve c/o Renaissance Hotel, +1-314-621-9600, or Starting Sunday morning, June 1, call the AAS Press Room, 1-314-621-7854

/PRNewswire-USNewswire - May 27/

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Source: American Astronomical Society

Web Site: http://www.aas.org/

2008-05-27 19:14:01 0371138 PRNEWSWIRE