Dave Eicher lectures at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on Friday, evening, October 16, 2015. // David J. Eicher
On Friday evening, October 16, I had the pleasure of addressing the Amateur Astronomers Association (AAA) of New York at the American Museum of Natural History. This was the first in this year’s cycle of invited talks on astronomy at the museum in a series that goes many years back and has offered talks on the entire spectrum of astronomy.
My talk, “The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions,” lasted an hour, and thanks to a wonderful and large crowd of more than 100, we had many excellent questions that lasted until the museum had to shut the room down! Thanks to the crowd for such absorbing interest.
The talk described important developments in astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science, and cosmology of the last 10 to 15 years, which constitutes a revolution in our knowledge. The subjects are drawn from my new book, “The New Cosmos,” to be published by Cambridge University Press in November.
The subjects included our knowledge of how the Sun will transform into a planetary nebula; how life will end on Earth; the formation of the Moon through a giant impact; the history of water on Mars; the reasons why Venus “turned itself inside-out”; the status of Pluto as a planet; the explosion of exoplanet discoveries; our discovery of the barred spiral nature of the Milky Way; the eventual collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies; the nature of the Big Bang; the size of the universe; the mystery of dark matter; the bigger mystery of dark energy; the ubiquitous nature of black holes; the fate of the universe; and the nature of life in the cosmos.
This covered a great range of subjects, and the audience enjoyed discussing an enormous array of details related to many of these subjects. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and expertise of the group!
Afterward, officers of the AAA, the largest astronomy club in the country, took me to a fine Italian restaurant for a long dinner, with much more conversation. Many thanks to them for their spectacular hospitality. I am particularly indebted to President Marceloo Cabrera for his great friendship, and to Susan Andreoli, Jason Kendall, and Stan Honda for their help and friendship.
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