Outreach
You can learn about the full range of outreach activities, including Astrofest, planetarium shows, star gazing, and public lectures, on the Astronomy & Astrophysics department website and by following the Facebook groups for Penn State Astronomy’s Outreach Program and the Astronomy on Tap State College series.
Selected Public Lectures at Penn State
- “The road to characterizing potentially habitable planets” at 2020 Penn State Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures Series, Prof. Eric Ford, February 8, 2020
- “Hunt for an Earth Twin and the Pathway for the Origin of Life” Prof. Didier Queloz, October 18, 2019
- “How to Hunt for Signs of Alien Life” at 2018 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, Prof. Lisa Kaltenegger, February 24, 2018
- “What makes a planet habitable?” at 2018 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, CEHW Prof. Jim Kasting, February 17, 2018
- “The Birth of Habitable Planets” at 2018 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, CEHW Prof. Rebekah Dawson, February 10, 2018
- “Is there life on other planets?” at 2018 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, Dr. Sarah Ballard, February 3, 2018
- “New Tools for Finding the Closest Earth-Like Planets” at 2018 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, CEHW Prof. Suvrath Mahadevan, January 27, 2018
- “How to Look for a Liveable Planet” at 2018 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, Prof. John Johnson, January 20, 2018
- “How common are Earth-size planets?” at Blue & White Science Expo, Eric Ford, Heritage Hall, April 22, 2017
- “Astronomy & Space in Recent News” by Thomas Beatty & Rebekah Dawson and “Hidden Figures in Astronomy” by CEHW graduate student Jonathan Jackson, at Astronomy on Tap, April 10, 2017
- “Searching for Alien Megastructures: Hype vs. Reality” Friedman Lecture by Jason Wright, December 1, 2015
- “Exoplanets: The Search for Habitable Worlds” Eric Ford, March 26, 2015
- “Using General Relativity to Discover Planets” Jason Wright, February 21, 2015
- “Potential Habitable Worlds: How Common Are They?” Ravi Kopparapu, October 30, 2014
- “Extrasolar Planets, Blue Dots, and the Origin of Life” Thomas Henning, October 21, 2014
- “The Far Flung Future of Energy in our Galaxy” Jason Wright, November 25, 2013
- “Are We Alone?” Jill Tarter, April 9, 2013
- “Other Worlds”, John Johnson, August 16, 2010
- “Planets, Planets Everywhere!”, Darren Williams, Penn State Erie, July 20, 2009
Selected Public Lectures Abroad
- “Songs of Distant Earths” by Suvrath Mahadevan, McDonald Observatory, April 9, 2017
- “NASA’s Kepler Mission & the Search for Earth-like Planets” by Eric Ford, Cambridge, UK, March 9, 2016
- “The Search for Exoplanets & Finding Our Plance in the Universe” by Eric Ford, Blavatnik Science Symposium, New York City, NY, August 6, 2015
- “The Quest for Earth-Like Planets” Eric Ford, Kennedy Space Center, FL, April 25, 2015
- “A WISE search for large extraterrestrial civilizations” by Jason Wright, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, Dec 5, 2013
- “The Science of Exoplanets” by Jason Wright, Astronomy Education Workshop Keynote Address, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, October 22, 2011
- “Exoplanet Detection” by Jason Wright, Many Suns, Many Worlds: The Galactic Quest for Exoplanets, Keck Institute for Space Sciences, Pasandea, CA, October 4, 2010
