Cosmic Musings lecture series presented by United Airlines.

We thought the planets of our solar system were weird worlds, until we began to see the lands harbored by our neighboring stars. Huge Jupiters snuggle so close to their stars that one year lasts days. Other worlds begin their nights with dual sunsets like Star Wars Tatooine or drown in global oceans or seas of magma. Let’s visit worlds more extreme than anything in fiction and ask if any could be called home.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Elizabeth Tasker, JAXA astrophysicist. Photo credit: Ken Yan Photography. | Artist's concept depicts the pulsar planet system discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | This illustration shows what the TRAPPIST-1 system might look like from a vantage point near planet TRAPPIST-1f (at right). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. HEADER IMAGE: This artist's conception of the mini planetary system illustrates KOI-961. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

ELIZABETH TASKER is an astrophysicist at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), where her research explores the formation of stars and planets using computer modelling. Originally British, she completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford before spending five years in North America at Columbia University and the University of Florida in the USA and McMaster University in Canada. She moved to Japan in 2011 and continues to look forward to the day when the Japanese canteen menu is less confusing than her research. Her popular science book on planet formation and exoplanets, The Planet Factory, was published by Bloomsbury Sigma last November. Elizabeth can be found on twitter and her website (@girlandkat, http://girlandkat.com) and also discussing exoplanets in various media, including the NASA's NExSS “Many Worlds” blog, http://www.manyworlds.space/ .

The Planet Factory
Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth
An informative and entertaining read, Elizabeth Tasker's The Planet Factory takes the reader to the cutting edge of the ongoing search for worlds like our own, and the hints of life elsewhere in the cosmos.

Check-in opens at 6:00 p.m. adjacent to the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon theater. Griffith Observatory and the Café at the End of the Universe will be open. The Stellar Emporium will be open and selling books for the book signing both before and after the presentation. The presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon theater. The book signing begins after the presentation, around 9:00 p.m., adjacent to The Stellar Emporium.

FOTO MEMBERS: $10 / NON-MEMBERS: $25
FREE GUARANTEED PARKING WITH RESERVATION

Reservations are required to access event parking and enter Griffith Observatory. In the case of sold-out shows, ticket sales will close. The event wait list may be joined by emailing MMeehan@FOTO.org, including the number of seats requested and a full name for the reservation. Wait list tickets are sold at the door, cash (exact change) only. Non-wait list tickets not picked up by 7:40 p.m. will be made available to wait-listed guests. No refunds are available. All registration closes February 13, 4:00 p.m.

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