SVAstronomyLectures
Founded in 1999, the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are presented on six Wednesday evenings during each school year at Foothill College, in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Speakers over the years have included a wide range of noted scientists, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. A generous donation by one of our supporters is now enabling us to record the lectures and make them freely available to the public on the Web. The series is organized and moderated by Foothill's astronomy instructor emeritus Andrew Fraknoi and jointly sponsored by the Foothill College Physical Science, Math, and Engineering Division, the SETI Institute, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the University of California Observatories (including the Lick Observatory), (all of whose links you can find below).
The Search for Life on Saturn’s Intriguing Moon Enceladus
The New Vera C. Rubin Observatory: Surveying the Universe
Science at the Edge of the Solar System: Uncovering the Secrets of the Pluto System and Arrokoth
New Worlds: Analyzing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Copernicus 4.0: How the Views of Earth's Importance and the Search for Life are Changing.
Real-Time Collaborative Science Decisioning Systems for Moon to Mars human-robotic exploration.
Observing with the James Webb Space Telescope: Glimpsing the First Stars
Profound and Staggering: The Impact on Religion of the Discovery of Life around Other Stars
Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter's Ocean World
The Allure of the Multiverse: Beyond the Limits of Direct Observation
Black Holes and the Technology to Find Them
Exploring the Gravitational Wave Universe
Water Above, Water Below, Water Within: The Many Roles of Water in Making Planets Habitable
The Peril and Profit of Near-Earth Objects
Earth to Earth, Dust to Dust: The Birth and Death of Worlds
An Eclipse Double Header: Two Eclipses of the Sun Coming in 2023-24
First Update from the James Webb Space Telescope
Our Boldest Effort to Answer our Oldest Question: Breakthrough-Listen Search for Intelligent Life
Postcards from Mars: The Latest from the International Armada of Robot Explorers
A Little Talk About Aliens: Techno-Signatures and the New Science of Life in the Universe.
Black Hole Survival Guide
Lick Observatory During Pandemics: 1918 and 2020
Planet 9 from Outer Space: Searching for a Distant Planet in our Solar System
The Hunt for Dark Matter in the Universe: New Experiments
The Biggest Sky Survey Ever Taken: Exploring the Universe with the Rubin Observatory
What Does a Black Hole Look Like: How We Got Our First Picture
Encounter with Ultima Thule: The Most Distant Object Humanity Has Ever Explored
Charon, Pluto's Companion: What We Learned from New Horizons
Ocean Worlds in the Outer Solar System