For our March meeting we welcomed three guest speakers associated with the well established Sherwood Observatory. Last month they were guests at the Science 1 session and it’s thanks to Jim and the group for suggesting that we should contact Steve Wallace who is the project manager at the Observatory. Steve presented the first half of the meeting.
The focus of Steve’s talk was about the chances of life on other planets /moons in our solar system and beyond into deeper space. For life water is an essential ingredient so only places with water have the potential to support life. Much of our expanding universe is too hot or too cold to hold liquid water.
Those life forms would be pretty basic microscopic life which needs billions of years to evolve into complex living things. Basically those green aliens are a figment of our imagination.
The second part of the session was led by two students from Nottingham Trent University, Blaine and James, who introduced us to the project to develop a visitor centre and planetarium on the current site. Part of the process was to ask the group for ideas about what the site could offer to help make it an exciting venue for families and visitors of all ages.
It was followed up by a questionnaire which was completed on an individual basis.
Next Month: Friday 16th April at 10.00 am. Ann Murray has kindly volunteered to lead the session on the theme ‘Glaciers and Icebergs’.
David Rose