[AANC Contacts] First Announcement for Newsletters: Talk on Antimatter in the Cosmos Mar. 10 at Foothill College

[Andrew Fraknoi]

Public Lecture, Free and Open to Everyone
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Wednesday, Mar. 10, at 7 pm

Dr. Helen Quinn (of Stanford University) will give a free public 
lecture on "The Many Mysteries of Antimatter"

part of the 11th Annual Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, in the 
Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, 
in Los Altos Hills, California.

No background in science will be required for this talk.  Seating is 
first come, first served.  Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for more information and 
driving directions.

Antimatter is just like matter with all its properties reversed.  But 
when antimatter meets a matching amount of matter, they destroy each 
other, both turning suddenly into energy.  Scientists think there may 
have been equal amount of matter and antimatter in the early 
universe, and yet today we have lots of matter and very little 
antimatter. How and when that imbalance developed is one of the great 
mysteries in understanding the underlying properties of the universe.

Dr. Quinn, who is co-author of the definitive popular book on 
antimatter, will discuss the history of our understanding of 
antimatter and how we use the little bit of antimatter around today 
to study some of the highest energy processes among the stars and 
galaxies. One particularly interesting possible source of antimatter 
is the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles, mysterious 
material that is thought to make more of the universe than the 
regular matter we know and love. Dr. Quinn will discuss ongoing 
antimatter experiments that are helping to put limits on the nature 
and behavior of dark matter.

Dr. Quinn is Professor of Physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator 
Center at Stanford and Assistant to SLAC's Director for Education and 
Outreach. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences 
and is a former President of the American Physical Society.  Her book 
The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter (2008, Princeton University 
Press) is an engaging introduction to the world of particle physics.

The lectures are co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
* The SETI Institute

Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available in MP3 format at:
<http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html>http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html




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Andrew Fraknoi, Chair, Astronomy Program
Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Rd.,
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA

Telephone: (650) 949-7288
E-mail: fraknoiandrew at fhda.edu
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