Moon rocks and meteorites were the talk of the evening last Monday as Josh Cahill of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville presented to students and faculty at Brown Hall.
Cahill’s seminar was entitled “Planetary Material Studies Near and Far” and focused on samples returned from the Apollo missions to the moon.
Also, he discussed newly recovered meteorites from the moon and Mars.
Dr. Beverly Smith, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at ETSU, said that she first heard Cahill speak at a meeting in Nashville last fall.
“I thought that the students at ETSU would be interested in his program,” she explained.
Cahill said it is important for students to be aware of the ongoing research in the fields of astronomy and geology.
“There’s not much geology here,” Smith said.
Cahill’s presentation was a part of an ongoing series of seminars sponsored by the physics and astronomy department.
“We’ve had presentations by all sorts of different people this semester,” Smith said. “On Jan. 28 we took a tour of the Wellmont Health Physics Facilities. We had a chance to learn more about nuclear medicine and radiation treatments.”
Other programs offered this semester included a lecture by Craig Blue of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“The topic of [Blue’s] lecture was high density and infrared processing,” Smith said.
Though the seminars this semester have ended, Smith said that they will resume in the fall.
“They are usually held on Monday afternoons at 4 p.m.,” she said.
Call Smith at 439-8418 or beverly@panda.etsu.edu, or visit the physics web site at http://www.etsu.edu/physics/ for more information.

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