Welcome to Houston Astronomical Society

"The Cosmic Creation of the Elements"

by Bill Spizzirri

At the very beginning of the universe, in the burst of energy called the big bang,  there were no atoms. Today, everything we see, all the stars in all the galaxies, all the planets, everything in our solar system, everything on earth, even every part of our own bodies are made of atoms - 114 chemical elements. Together, we will embark on a voyage of discovery, to uncover how all the elements were created and how they came to be in our bodies today.

Our Speaker: Bill Spizzirri is a retired computer software engineer who has been studying astronomy for over 65 years. His favorite thing to do is to teach astronomy to the public, especially children. He has been doing that more or less continuously for over 40 years. He now does it at Houston area schools and community centers. The pay is excellent, in the form of great questions from the students.

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This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. To attend, you must register for the meeting. You can do so using the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0tdO-qrjgjHdxddePMOlei8OSv5ZARHC_5 

You only need to register once!

Join us Friday, August 4th, 2023 at 7:00 pm CDST. See you then!

Due to extreme heat, the observatory training class scheduled for July 15 is cancelled. Training will resume in the fall.

Venus is the same size as the Earth with many similar properties; however, Venus has a thick caustic atmosphere that obscures observing the surface from orbit. Thereby inhibiting investigations of volcanic structures, and potentially active volcanoes. Despite these challenges, over the last decade, there have been numerous attempts and approaches to constrain if Venus is volcanically active today. Dr. Filiberto will summarize what is known about the volcanic state of Venus from orbital and laboratory investigations.

Speaker Bio: Dr Justin Filiberto is the Manager of the Research Office within the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at the Johnson Space Center. As manager, they oversee the diverse research program and associated laboratories within the division. Their research has mainly focused on constraining planetary volatile budgets with implications for habitability, and magma genesis conditions and timing in planetary interiors. Their work has spanned multiple planetary bodies including Mars, the Earth, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. They are a science team member and a co-investigator for the Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) probe mission to Venus, which is scheduled to launch in 2029.

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This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. To attend, you must register for the meeting. You can do so using the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvcu2uqDItHN1EPQlnAln6v0YlZM5M7km- 

You only need to register once!

Join us Friday, July 7^th,  2023 at 7:00 pm CDST. See you then!