Award-winning astrophysicist Dr. Heidi B. Hammel will talk on “New Views on Neptune and Uranus” on Sunday, Sept. 18 at 3:30 p.m. She will discuss her results from the Hubble Space Telescope program, imaging from the Keck 10-m telescope, and other observations.
Hammel, Executive Vice President of The Association of Universities for Research in Science, is an acknowledged expert on the planet Neptune, and primarily studies outer planets and their satellites, with a focus on observational techniques. She was a member of the Imaging Science Team for the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune in 1989, and led the Hubble Space Telescope Team that investigated the 1994 impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter; she was also the public face for NASA for that event. Hammel is an Interdisciplinary Scientist for Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has won numerous awards including the Klumpke-Roberts Award; 1996 Urey Prize; and the Carl Sagan Medal. Asteroid “1981 EC20” has been renamed 3530 Hammel in her honor.
Reservations can be made by calling 203-413-6762.
Lectures are sponsored by The Astronomical Society of Greenwich and are at the Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Dr. Admission is free to museum members and ticket holders; others, by donation to the museum.
For more detailed information, visit astrogreenwich.org
