NASA RESEARCHER TO HEADLINE INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY MAY 10
April 3, 2008
FLORENCE, Ala. – Just six days before launching NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, Dr. Rob Preece will appear at the University of North Alabama’s International Astronomy Day on May 10. He will speak at 8 p.m. on the UNA campus.
Other International Astronomy Day events will include planetarium shows from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and, weather permitting, solar and evening observations of the moon and Saturn and a radio astronomy demonstration. The planetarium shows are $3 per person, and the observing and keynote talk are free and open to the public.
Preece, a researcher with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, has been a leading figure in the development of gamma-ray burst (GRB) generation theory, gamma-ray astronomy and radiative processes in GRBs. The GLAST mission will enable NASA researchers to explore the universe’s most extreme environments, such as supermassive black holes, merging neutron stars and streams of hot gas moving at the speed of light.
The International Astronomy Day program is a joint effort between UNA, the Shoals Astronomy Club, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Lockheed-Martin Corp.
For more information, contact Dr. Mel Blake at 256-765-4284 or rmblake@una.edu, or visit www.una.edu/planetarium.
