The General Shale Brick Gray Fossil Site Museum began its “Out of This World” public talk series on Saturday Nov. 1.
This coincided with the opening of the new temporary exhibit showing landscapes throughout the solar system. The exhibit is from the Smithsonian Institute and features artist Michael Benson’s enhanced images captured on various planets and moons.
The lecture was given by Dr. Beverley Smith, an astronomer at ETSU whose research specializes in studying galaxies with multi-wavelength investigations. The connection between Smith and Benson’s exhibit is fitting because the art often uses non-optical data from telescopes or probes. Humans actually can’t see very much of the electromagnetic spectrum, so artists and scientists alike use data that can be perceived by computers to add to the picture we can see of distant or otherwise blocked images.
Smith recounted many interesting facts discovered by the Cassini probe. Using a mnemonic device, she took the audience on a tour of Saturn’s nine biggest moons, which Cassini has been observing since 2004. Her enthusiasm for teaching and astronomy in general were often apparent as she dramatically spoke of the information the probe was sending back.
The moons are as different as anyone could have imagined. Some are geologically dead like our own moon and completely filled with craters because they have no atmosphere to cause erosion. Others have thick atmospheres, seas of liquid methane, or geysers that shoot into space.
Cassini was launched in 1997 and took an interesting ride through the solar system before finally orbiting Saturn. NASA has extended its previously projected mission time as it seems to be working quite well.
When asked how long it was expected to stay in commission, Smith explained “Cassini has long outlived what was expected, and as time goes by, they will take more risks, flying closer to get better pictures.” It runs on a plutonium thermoelectric generator, and therefore has a finite lifespan, but the space agencies that built it will try and get as much information as possible from it.
The lecture series will continue every other Saturday, with the next lecture on Nov. 15 by Dr. Mike McCarty a visiting radio astronomer who will be explaining his field. More presentations will be done on the following Saturdays, mostly by ETSU professors, and ending on Dec. 20.
The lectures are open to the public and held in the multimedia classroom at the Gray Fossil Site from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Many members of the local community were present, but there was a shortage of students.
While sometimes difficult to get over to Gray on a Saturday afternoon, students are encouraged to come to the talks, including other presentations done by the astronomy department on campus at either the planetarium in Hutcheson Hall or the observatory.

Author