• The Search for Life: A Story Told by Past, Present, Future NASA Science Missions

    Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy 65-1692 Kohala Mountain Rd, Waimea, HI, United States

    Guest Speaker Megan Ansdell Program Officer Join us for a free, ʻohana-friendly public astronomy talk with Kamaʻāina and NASA Program Officer Megan Ansdell on Thursday, May 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Gates Performing Arts Center at Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy in Waimea. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. In this talk, we will embark on the […]

  • From the Possibility to the Certainty of a Supermassive Black Hole

    Kahilu Theatre 67-1186 Lindsey Rd, Kamuela, HI, United States

    Guest Speaker Andrea Ghez 2020 Nobel Prize Winner UCLA Professor of Physics and Astronomy FREE event – space is limited, ticket registration required: GET TICKETS Learn about new developments in the study of supermassive black holes. Through the capture and analysis of twenty years of high-resolution imaging, the UCLA Galactic Center Group has moved the […]

  • The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, From a Reporter’s Perspective

    Kahilu Theatre 67-1186 Lindsey Rd, Kamuela, HI, United States

    Guest Speaker Nadia Drake Science Journalist For millennia, humans have wondered whether there’s life beyond Earth. Over the last half-century or so, these musings have evolved from fantasy and speculation into a legitimate scientific endeavor, guided largely by the Drake Equation — a formula that estimates the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in our Milky […]

  • Exploring the Pluto System and Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth with NASA’s New Horizons

    Kahilu Theatre 67-1186 Lindsey Rd, Kamuela, HI, United States

    Guest Speaker Alan Stern Principal Investigator NASA New Horizons Mission, Southwest Research Institute NASA’s New Horizons is the first spacecraft to successfully explore the Pluto System and a Kuiper Belt Object named Arrokoth, making history as the farthest flyby ever performed in our solar system. Learn more about the mission, the scientific payload it carries, […]

  • Astronomy Talk: NASA: Exploring the Secrets of the Universe and Improving Life on Earth

    Kahilu Theatre 67-1186 Lindsey Rd, Kamuela, HI, United States

    Guest Speaker Thomas H. Zurbuchen Former Head of Science NASA Ever since NASA was established in 1958, expanding human knowledge of Earth, atmospheric phenomena, and space has been NASA’s priority. Discoveries made with both robotic and human exploration has changed how we think about the universe, our planet, and life beyond our planet. Dr. Zurbuchen […]

  • Astronomy Talk: The Remaining 95 Percent: Insights From Gravitational Lensing

    In our standard model of cosmology, only five percent of the mass-energy budget of the Universe is accounted for by particles that have been detected in Earth-based laboratories. The remaining 95 percent, called dark matter and dark energy, has only been detected gravitationally via astronomical observations. Although the abundance of dark matter and dark energy […]

  • Astronomy Talk: Where We Came From — How Solar Systems Form

    Where We Came From — How Solar Systems FormHow common are Earths? Unknown just a generation ago, more than 2,000 planets have been discovered orbiting other stars in our galaxy and Hawaii’s own Keck Observatory has been at the forefront of this incredibly exciting field. We have invited Professor Greg Laughlin, an expert on planet […]

  • Astronomy Talk: ​Manu ʻImiloa – Modern & Ancient Ways of Navigating our Universe

    A Hilo native born in Keaukaha and raised in Panaʻewa, Celeste “Cesi” Manuia Ha’o is an Educate Associate and the Outreach Coordinator of the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaiʻi. Also a member of the ʻOhana Waʻa, Celeste is an apprentice navigator who recently co-navigated Hawaiʻi’s famed voyaging canoe, Hōkūleʻa, as part of the Mālama Honua […]

  • Astronomy Talk: What Wonderful Worlds – Exploring our Solar System

    Knowledge about our own Solar System has increased by leaps and bounds over the past few decades due to a combination of spacecraft missions and technical advancements at the W. M. Keck Observatory and other telescopes.Imke de Pater, Professor of Astronomy at University of California, Berkeley will start with a short overview of the numerous […]

  • Astronomy Talk: America’s Space Program – NASA’s Roadmap to Tomorrow’s Missions

    NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will discuss America’s space program and the challenges the agency faces for the missions of tomorrow. Using a stepping stone approach that builds on the capabilities of our unique orbiting laboratory – the International Space Station – the growing abilities of commercial providers to reach space, and a new rocket and […]

  • Astronomy Talk: Extreme Stars at the Center of the Galaxy

    The Stellar Zoo at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy would be quite unfamiliar to a terrestrial visitor. Not only do the types of stars differ in many ways from what we can see in our serene nighttime sky from Earth, but the stars at the galactic center are also not behaving like the […]