At this meeting of the Society for Popular Astronomy, the main speaker is Hannah Osborne of UCL, on Searching for Planet B.
The study of exoplanets – planets beyond our Solar System – is less than 30 years old. Since the discovery of the first one in 1995, over 5,000 exoplanets have been located around other stars. Hannah will give a brief history of exoplanets, describe how they are detected, giving some examples, and will end with a look towards the future focus of this research area and the missions that will be used. This talk was originally planned for the January 2025 meeting, but Hannah was unable to deliver it because of illness. On this occasion she will give the talk online from Chile.
Following a break, Robin Scagell will describe what’s coming up in the sky over the next three months. Then Greg Smye-Rumsby, of Astronomy Now, will talk on the intriguing subject of Arrokoth and The Sentinels. When NASA’s New Horizons probe was launched in 2006 to Pluto, its subsequent target, now called Arrokoth, had not even been discovered. Greg looks at the extension to its mission, what it discovered and what may lay ahead for the intrepid spacecraft.
The meeting takes place in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre at University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT. The meeting starts at 14:00 and ends at 17:00 (doors open 13:30). Admission is free.
