Impression of NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory. Credit: NASA.

The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) is offering a free public lecture on Saturday, March 29th, at the Estes Park Memorial Observatory. EVAS’s goal is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes Valley.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is a large infrared/optical/ultraviolet space telescope recommended by the National Academies’ Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s. HWO is a concept for a mission that would search for and characterize habitable planets beyond our solar system. The mission’s primary objective would be to identify and directly image at least 25 potentially habitable worlds. It would then use spectroscopy to search for chemical “biosignatures” in these planets’ atmospheres, including gasses such as oxygen and methane, which could serve as critical evidence for life. The observatory would introduce new capabilities to study the universe with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, giving us important new insights into the evolution of cosmic structures, including how galaxies form and develop over time. – NASA

Dr. Laura Coyle, Sr. Principal Optical Engineer, BAE Systems, Inc.

Our speaker is Dr. Laura Coyle,  a Sr. Principal Optical Engineer at BAE Systems, Space & Mission Systems, Inc.  She has served as the Principal Investigator for the Ultra-Stable Large Telescope Research and Analysis (ULTRA) series of programs over the last five years.  Dr. Coyle supports a range of opportunities, from internal research and development efforts to flight programs.  She was a member of the team responsible for the alignment and performance characterization of the Operational Land Imager 2 instrument for the Landsat-9 mission, as well as a member of the optical test team and on-orbit commissioning team for the James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Coyle also serves as the Civil Astrophysics Technology Initiative lead, overseeing technology development for ultra-stable optical systems and general astrophysics missions. Dr. Coyle completed her BA in Physics and Applied Mathematics at Colgate University, followed by her MS and PhD in Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona’s Wyant College of Optical Sciences.

The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm, and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm.  The presentation, including a question-and-answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our new 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.