Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory/Las Positas College Science and Engineering Seminar to Explore Direct Imaging of Planets

“Building an Instrument to Image Extra-Solar Planets,” a new seminar in the second season of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)/Las Positas College Science and Engineering Seminar Series, will take place on Tuesday, April 3, 6-7:15 p.m. in the Multi-Disciplinary Building 2400, Room 2420. The event is free and open to the public. Parking is $2. 

The seminar discussion topic is the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), a powerful new instrument that will be delivered to the 8-meter Gemini South Telescope this year. Presenters will discuss how scientists and engineers work together on three aspects of the GPI: balancing instrument science requirements with engineering design, innovating new technologies, and understanding and mitigating defects in hardware. 

“Though more than 700 planets have been discovered orbiting other stars, we have only just begun to be able to take pictures of these faint, distant worlds. Direct imaging is extremely challenging, but scientifically essential; images and spectra of an exoplanet will tell us what it's made of and eventually if it harbors life,” the abstract explains. 

The seminar presenters are two LLNL experts: Bruce Macintosh, Ph.D., Astronomer, Optical Sciences Group Principal Investigator, Gemini Planet Imager project; and Lisa Poyneer, Ph.D., Engineer, Optical Sciences and Signal & Image Processing Groups. The seminar is part of a series, “Theory to Practice:  How Science Gets Done.” 

“The series is designed to enhance the partnership shared by the two Livermore institutions and provides a forum for laboratory scientists and engineers to share their broad range of basic and applied research with the college’s scientific community of students, staff and faculty,” said Dean of Math, Science, Engineering and Public Safety Neal Ely, Ph.D. 

“The series offers a way to look at how science is done,” added Biology Instructor Nan Ho. “A unique feature of the series, especially for a community college, is the focus on the ‘big science’ that LLNL does that requires cross-disciplinary expertise.”