Guest speaker Aaron Boley will talk about alien worlds around distant stars at the next meeting of the Sunshine Coast chapter of Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. The meeting is next Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.
Boley has a degree in astrophysics from Indiana University and went on to be faculty at the department of astronomy at the University of Florida.
For centuries we have relied on only the solar system for understanding the formation of planets. Now, more than 700 confirmed planets have been discovered outside the solar system, and our knowledge of the solar system itself is expanding. New data from a range of fields, such as meteoritics, astrochemistry, dynamics and observational astronomy continuously challenge planet formation theory.
In this talk, we will explore the wide variety of planetary systems that are now known to exist. These new worlds, both alien and familiar, challenge our understanding of planet formation, and also give us new information for unlocking planet formation's secrets.
Check out the Sunshine Coast RASC site at: www.coastastronomy.ca for more details and upcoming events.
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