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APRIL 27, 2018 - General Membership Meeting at 8:00 PM
at the Portage Lakes Kiwanis Civic Center
  725 Portage Lakes Dr
Akron, OH  44319

Click for map and directions

Please note that we ALWAYS encourage the public to attend ANY of our events, including meetings.
Come and enjoy the lecture and talk to us about astronomy!

8:00 PM - Call to order and introduction of tonight's program:

Speaker:

Brandon Shaw

Presentation:

"Venus in the Lab: Planetary Exploration Through Simulation"

Abstract:

Even today, there is ambiguity on exactly what processes are taking place on the surface of our closest and most similarly-sized planetary neighbor: Venus. Shrouded by an atmosphere 92x as thick as the Earth's and composed mainly of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, surface temperatures regularly reach nearly 500°C (over 930°F). Both historical and current investigations of Earth, Venus, and Mars suggest that interactions between the atmosphere and crust play a critical role in the climatic evolution and habitability of a planetary surface. In the absence of reliable data from Venus' surface, experiments provide one of our best resources for improving our understanding of how that planet works. We have completed a series of experiments designed to further our understanding of atmosphere-driven weathering and alteration of basaltic materials that may be occurring on Venus today. These experiments simulate the exposure of fresh basaltic rock at Venus’s surface. Our experiments expose representative igneous phases (mineral, glasses and rocks) to the world's best simulation of Venus surface conditions using the NASA Glenn Extreme Environment Rig (GEER) located at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The results of these experiments suggest answers to several key questions pertaining to the surface and atmosphere of Venus and the evolution of terrestrial planets in general.

Bio:

Brandon Radoman-Shaw graduated with honors from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX with a B.S. in Geoscience in 2012 with a thesis on Venus mapping. Brandon is working on a doctoral thesis in Venusian geochemistry with Dr. Ralph Harvey at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He has also completed research on anomalously large metal nodules in ordinary chondrite meteorites.
9:00 PM - Brief coffee-break / discussion time
 
9:15 PM - Business meeting to be called to order and will include the following:
 

Meeting Agenda in a Microsoft WORD file

 

Meeting Agenda in a PDF file

  ●  Treasurer's Report
  ●  Observatory Director's Report
  ●  Calls for observations
  ●  New Business


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