The lectures are at 6:30 p.m., and are free and open to the public. The lectures are part of the museum's eighth annual Astronomy Days at the downtown museum, said Pat Berger of the museum.
The scheduled talks over the next two weeks will help introduce Earthwatch students visiting the Laboratory to the field of astrophysics. The high-school-age students accepted into the Earthwatch Student Challenge Awards Program participate in a variety of activities over a two-week period coordinated and designed by Los Alamos technical staff members.
The evening talks also provide an opportunity to discuss the nature of scientific research and how understanding the process for that research is crucial to planning one's career and training as a scientist.
Heitman, of Los Alamos' Space Science and Applications Group, will talk about "Cosmology: The State of the Universe." She will provide a brief overview of how theoretical observational cosmology has evolved and also discuss how present-day observations can help in building a consistent picture of the very early universe, said Berger.
The second scheduled talk in the series is Wednesday (June 29), when Los Alamos' Jack Hills will talk about asteroids and comets and their impacts with Earth. Hills is a technical staff member in Los Alamos' Theoretical Astrophysics Group.
Astronomy Days continues on July 1 when Bill Feldman of the Space Science and Applications Group discusses his groundbreaking research and findings related to the discovery of water on Mars.
Other scheduled talks are as follows:
Ed Fenimore of the Space Science and Applications Group will talk about gamma ray bursts in a presentation on July 6. The talk will explore the wonders of gamma-ray bursts and how Laboratory scientists study them. Los Alamos researchers have been at the forefront of gamma-ray bursts since the early 1970s.
On July 7 Los Alamos researcher Falk Herwig will talk about the origin of the elements. His talk will focus on new quantitative and qualitative data researchers are using to help solve the puzzle of the origin of elements, the vast majority of which are made in the stars and in the supernova explosions that terminate the life of massive stars. Herwig is a technical staff member in Los Alamos' Theoretical Astrophysics Group.
The series concludes the following evening (July 8) when Los Alamos scientist Michelle Thomsen talks about "Cassini at Saturn." Her talk focuses on the journey of the Cassini spacecraft, from its Florida launch to settling into orbit around Saturn in July 2004 and the data it is returning to scientists on Earth. Cassini is returning spectacular images of the planet and its rings and moons, as well as information about Saturn's magnetosphere, the huge bubble in interplanetary space carved out of Saturn's magnetic field. Thomsen works in the Space Science and Applications Group of the Laboratory.
The Bradbury Science Museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in Los Alamos. Museum hours, apart from the special events listed above are 1 to 5 p.m., Sunday and Monday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. The museum is part of Los Alamos' Public Affairs Office.
For more information, contact Berger at 665-0896.
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Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.