October 25, 2021 7:30-9:30PM

Event: Astronomy on Tap

Talk 1

Title: NASA's First Planetary Defense Mission: The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
Lecturer: Julie Bellerose
Position: Staff Scientist
Institution: JPL

Talk 2

Title: Probing the Big Bang with the Earliest Gravitational Waves
Lecturer: Ritoban Basu Thakur
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution: JPL

Quiz Questions / Answers

1. The Orionids meteor shower is currently happening--What is the parent body of the Orionid meteors? Halley’s Comet
2. Who are the three oldest people to visit space? William Shatner (90); Wally Funk (82); John Glenn (77)
3. The James Webb Space Telescope has arrived in what country, where it will be launched in a little over a month? France/ French Guiana
4. If an asteroid is on a collision course with the Earth, what could we do to mitigate its impact? Pulverize it
5. What determines the expansion rate of the universe at any given time? The current component of the universe with the highest energy density
6. Last month, the NASA Lucy mission launched into space to eventually study what object(s)? Trojans
7. What's the mass fraction between DART and its asteroid target? ~1:10000000
8. Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini, are featured in what blockbuster film? Face / Off
9. What is an increasing source of light pollution? Megaconstellations of satellites
10. How long will astronaut's footprints last on the Moon? ~1e6 years