7:30 p.m.  Meet the lecturer
8:00 p.m.  Lecture begins
9:00 p.m.  Stargazing at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory, weather permitting

The past decade has marked a period of great progress in the quest to understand planets outside our solar system.  The first ones discovered were enormous.  Observations of eclipsing systems, in which the planet periodically passes in front of and then behind its star as seen from Earth, have given us new insight into the nature of these alien worlds.  Explore these unfamiliar planets as California Institute of Technology assistant professor of planetary science Heather Knutson describes ongoing efforts to understand their compositions, temperatures, and weather patterns using both ground- and space-based telescopes.

Tickets for this lecture are free and must be reserved in advance. Please note: all new tickets requests for this lecture will be for overflow seating in the Museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium. Request tickets for this lecture using the form below. To request tickets for other lectures in the Exploring Space Lecture Series, please visit the corresponding event listings. 

About the Exploring Space Lecture Series: Giants of the Solar System and Beyond

Giant planets in our solar system lie beyond the asteroid belt. The Juno spacecraft has recently arrived at the largest, Jupiter.  Cassini will soon end its mission at Saturn.  Farther afield, tantalizing clues suggest the existence of Planet Nine, a rocky world ten times the mass of Earth.  And immense worlds called Super-Earths and Hot Jupiters orbit stars other than our own.  Join four distinguished speakers as they explore the unimaginably huge, stunningly beautiful, and sometimes bizarre giant worlds. Learn more. 

The Exploring Space lectures are made possible by the generous support of Aerojet Rocketdyne and United Launch Alliance.