Associate Professors Trish Henning and Rhian Jones, Physics & Astronomy and Earth & Planetary Sciences respectively, are two of the many female scientists participating in “She is an Astronomer," a free public astronomy event for girls aged 8 to 18. The event will take place on Sunday, Aug. 9, from 1 to 6 p.m. at the Open Space Visitor Center on Albuquerque's west side. No pre-registration is required.
"She is an Astronomer" will feature a variety of hands-on science activities and demonstrations, planetarium shows every half hour, and, weather permitting, safe telescope viewing of the Sun. Some of New Mexico's top female astronomers and scientists, including Henning and Jones, will staff activity stations and interact with the girls.
Henning is Director of UNM’s Institute for Astrophysics. Her research areas include extragalactic astronomy, radio astronomy, galaxy clusters and superclusters, and material content of cosmic voids. Jones is an expert on chrondrites, meteorites containing material dating to the origin of the solar system. She is the former curator of UNM's Institute of Meteoritics, which includes the Meteorite Museum.
To underscore the event theme, "Astronomy is Women's Work," activities will include: "Doing Dishes" (radio astronomy); "Looking in the Mirror" (optical astronomy); "Cooking Light" (astrophotography, the spectrum); "Applying Mineral Make-up" (planetary geology, meteoritics, astrobiology); and "Sweeping the Universe" (sky surveys, building models of the universe). Girls who visit all of these activity stations will receive an astronomy-related keepsake.
Event sponsors are the National Radio Astronomy Observatory-Very Large Array and The Albuquerque Astronomical Society, working in partnership with the City of Albuquerque’s Open Space Division and the Explora Science Center.
"She is an Astronomer" is a global project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA). Initiated by the International Astronomical Union and the United Nations, IYA is the quadricentennial celebration of Galileo's first use of a telescope for astronomy.
For event information and directions visit: Astronomy Workshops or call (505) 261-0040.
For more information visit: 2009 International Year of Astronomy.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu