The search for alien worlds in our galaxy…
Join Carrie Fitzgerald on November 4th at 7pm when this physicist, educator and NASA Solar Ambassador brings us her exciting presentation “Planets, and More Planets!”, on the search for alien worlds in our Galaxy.
Over 4,000 planets outside of our Solar System have been discovered since the early 1990s, and thousands more “candidate” planets await confirmation. It seems our Galaxy is teeming with exoplanets! In this presentation you’ll learn how astronomers detect exoplanets, as well as some unexpected observations about these alien worlds, and how these observations have impacted our place in the universe.
Carrie Fitzgerald has a BS in physics from Stetson University and a MS and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her PhD dissertation is in experimental nuclear astrophysics and involves a particular set of reactions that occur in globular cluster red giant stars. After graduation she received an associateship from the National Academies of Sciences to work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. Her research there centered on the development of a gamma-ray detector for studying the Sun.
Carrie Fitzgerald is a NASA Solar System Ambassador and an associate professor in the physics and engineering department of Montgomery College where she teaches astronomy and physics as well as maintaining the campus observatory. In addition to teaching and hosting events at the observatory, she serves as the advisor to the college’s student astronomy club. She has given numerous presentations on the topics of celestial navigation and timekeeping, the Sun, black holes, stellar evolution, dark matter, cosmology, and the search for aliens.
The Montgomery College Astronomical Observatory is located on the rooftop of the Rockville Science Center. The center’s mission is to inform and inspire the public and college community about the foundations and frontiers of modern astronomy; to spark and sustain public interest in astronomy and science; to enhance Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education; and to provide educational opportunities and resources for the public, college community, educators, and students of all ages.