We are holding a VIRTUAL “Macomb” meeting this month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schedule:
7 PM: Tech check and warmup (Webex only)
7:30 PM: YouTube goes live / Introductions
7:35 PM: In the News, In the Sky
7:50 PM: Officers’ reports, Special Interest Groups
8:00 PM: Observing Reports, Ask an Astronomy Question
8:15 PM: Break, informal discussion
8:30 PM: Feature talk: Cosmic Fireworks

If you’d like to join the webex to speak and share your video if you wish, please email joinlive@warrenastro.org.

If you’re just joining the YouTube stream, go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12jUX4Gmweg6fTtUuqa8CQ/live

In order to comment on the YouTube stream, you must have a Google Account and a YouTube channel. Here are guides to setting both up:

Google Account: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/161805
YouTube Channel: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1646861

Feature presentation: “What if our Sun were a red dwarf star?” by Dave Bailey

The W.A.S.’s resident Einstein Dave Bailey explores an alternate universe where our yellow dwarf is replaced with a red dwarf instead. Would life be possible? What would the solar system look like?

The book, “Rare Earth”, was written by two professors who believe that we humans might be the only intelligent creatures in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. I myself believe there are intelligent species on many other planets. But I have to answer Enrico Fermi who asked, “Where are they?” My answer is, “Most of them live in red dwarf star systems.” I’m guessing there might be 100,000 of these inhabited stellar systems in our galaxy. In this talk, I will explore the astrophysics, both stellar and planetary, in such red dwarf systems. Perhaps a biologist, hearing my talk, might be inspired to write another talk, which would explore how such a red dwarf star and planet could foster a species at least as smart as our own.

Open up the latest issue of our newsletter and scroll to page 30 to get the obligatory handout for the presentation: http://www.warrenastro.org/was/newsletter/WASP-2020-05.pdf

Image by NASA/ESA/STScI/G. Bacon
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If you would like to present a short talk (5-15 minutes) or a long talk (40-60 minutes) at a future meeting, please email Dale Partin at firstvp@warrenastro.org.
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The views expressed in presentations are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent, and should not be attributed to, the Warren Astronomical Society.