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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: |
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Brandon Shaw |
Presentation: |
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"Venus in the
Lab: Planetary Exploration Through Simulation" |
Abstract: |
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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: |
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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 |
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9:15 PM - Business meeting
to be called to order and will include the following: |
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