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Featured SpeakerDr. Geoff Marcy is the leader of the first and most prolific team of extrasolar planet hunters. They work out of Lick Observatory in the mountains east of San Jose, CA. Using their own precise Doppler-shift technology and often watching stars for decades, the team routinely measures planet-inferring star wobbles down to a remarkably precise one meter per second, and often measuring 1/1000 of a pixel on a CCD. A sine wave pattern emerges after a number of observations, indicating the presence of one or more planets, their orbital periods, mass and temperature. Dr. Marcy s team opened the floodgates in 1995 after confirming the discovery of a large planet closely orbiting 51 Pegasi, discovered by a Swiss team. Marcy's team discovered 107 planets orbiting other stars by the end of 2005. Many scientists were skeptical until some planets presenting systems nearly edge-on, measurably dimmed the light of their parent stars when they transited in front of them. Now every planetary discovery is treated as scientific truth, even though the planetary components aren't seen directly. Geoff credits his team for his endeavor's success which is made up of three ("brilliant") former students, who developed the technology and techniques used. As refined as the technology is, only large planets of Jupiter masses can be easily "seen." Dr. Marcy is now building a dedicated telescope with the precision to detect small, rocky planets with only a few Earth masses. He is a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley. TIME: 8:30 AM Saturday Big Room $10 admission |