Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

Weather permitting, we will meet outside the front of the Museum of Science and walk approximately 4.6km, learning 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history along the way. This is a nearly three-mile walk along Cambridge Street to Cambridge Common. Wear comfortable shoes and prepare to be outdoors for a few hours.

Event organizer Nancy Lowe is an artist interested in the rich ecotone — the boundary territory — between art and science. She makes art with science themes, teaches art-science workshops, curates art-science exhibits and performances, guides art-science residency programs, and leads citizen science projects and other activities for creative science engagement. She worked for over a decade as a technician in labs focusing on pollination biology, insect-plant interactions, and large-scale ecology.

Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

In 2015, nearly 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted their existence, gravitational-waves were discovered by the LIGO observatories. Eight years later, tens of gravitational-wave sources have been discovered, changing the way we can explore the Universe and some of its most extreme objects. Come hear the latest news about gravitational waves and black holes.

*** Attendees should provide their own lunch. ***

Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

Have you ever eaten a Milky Way candy bar? Have you noticed how many everyday products are named after astronomy terms? Ever wonder about the science behind these popular consumer brand names?

For example, the candy bar “Milky Way” was named after our home galaxy — one of the many countless galaxies in the universe! POP! Astronomy is an educational video series and online science communications campaign featuring scientific presentations made by undergraduate students at MIT.

Join MIT Professor Anna Frebel for an interactive presentation or participate online by creating your own Pop! Astronomy graphic. Produced in collaboration with STEM on Stage.

www.popastronomy.com

Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

There is an ever-growing demand for larger structures in space: Larger solar panels achieve greater power output, larger antennas achieve higher gain and resolution, and larger solar sails achieve faster propulsion. However, the state-of-the art approach for deploying such systems in space limits their size to tens of meters, due to issues with reliability, precision, and other challenges unique to the space environment. To overcome these challenges, we are developing a method for manufacturing large structures in space from raw feedstock. Our approach relies on deformation processing, solid-state joining, and electrostatic actuation to fabricate truss structures for various space applications. In this lecture Harsh Bhundiya will describe the proposed manufacturing process, our research progress, and our vision for manufacturing large structures in orbit.

*** Organizer will provide lunch. ***

The Harvard Plate Stacks is presenting a special exhibition, Her Luminous Distance: The Legacies of Women Astronomical Computers at Harvard, in the rotunda and dome of the Great Refractor at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Free and open to the public, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of the Women Astronomical Computers and will illuminate to audiences the various disciplines and fields of study that have been inspired by these women and the astronomical photographs that they studied.

Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

Today, we are closer than ever to realizing the dream of harnessing the nuclear process that powers our sun. This stellar process, called fusion, produces minimal waste and offers the hope of an almost limitless supply of safe, dependable energy. For over 40 years MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) has been exploring nuclear fusion as a source of energy through a series of tokamaks, devices that use magnets to confine hot plasma in a donut-shaped chamber. Visit the PSFC and learn how MIT is supporting the latest exciting fusion research. Limited to 25.

*** Attendees should provide their own lunch. ***

The Harvard Plate Stacks is presenting a special exhibition, Her Luminous Distance: The Legacies of Women Astronomical Computers at Harvard, in the rotunda and dome of the Great Refractor at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Free and open to the public, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of the Women Astronomical Computers and will illuminate to audiences the various disciplines and fields of study that have been inspired by these women and the astronomical photographs that they studied.

Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

Weather permitting, we will meet outside the front of the Museum of Science and walk approximately 4.6km, learning 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history along the way. This is a nearly three-mile walk along Cambridge Street to Cambridge Common. Wear comfortable shoes and prepare to be outdoors for a few hours.

Event organizer Nancy Lowe is an artist interested in the rich ecotone — the boundary territory — between art and science. She makes art with science themes, teaches art-science workshops, curates art-science exhibits and performances, guides art-science residency programs, and leads citizen science projects and other activities for creative science engagement. She worked for over a decade as a technician in labs focusing on pollination biology, insect-plant interactions, and large-scale ecology.

Become an astronomer for a day! Come visit us on Observatory Hill, and see what the Center for Astrophysics has been up to. Enjoy exploration stations that include hands-on activities, telescope tours, and solar observing. There’s even an opportunity to ask our scientists all of your burning space questions at our “Ask an Astronomer” tables.

Find out the latest discoveries about the sun, exoplanets, and black holes and take your own telescope images using our robotic telescopes, or go on a virtual tour of space using the World Wide Telescope visualization lab- It’s out of this world!

The Harvard Plate Stacks is presenting a special exhibition, Her Luminous Distance: The Legacies of Women Astronomical Computers at Harvard, in the rotunda and dome of the Great Refractor at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Free and open to the public, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of the Women Astronomical Computers and will illuminate to audiences the various disciplines and fields of study that have been inspired by these women and the astronomical photographs that they studied.

The museum is proud to present selections from the acclaimed Woods Hole Film Festival, a showcase of independent film and the oldest independent film festival on Cape Cod and the Islands.

The Artist & the Astronaut tells the unlikely love story between the artist Pat Musick, a civil rights activist, and the Apollo astronaut Jerry Carr as they participate in some of the most historic events in human history. The film is filled with never-before-seen footage of the early space pioneers and features interviews with key figures from that era. It chronicles Pat’s and Jerry’s vastly different paths as they traverse uncertain times, eventually coming together to render some of America’s most enduring art. The Artist & the Astronaut is an uplifting love story proving that curiosity, perseverance, and empathy for others can be powerful agents of change.

The story of the making of this documentary is as unlikely as the story depicted in the film. Bill Muench, a full-time teacher, and basketball coach, at the urging of his wife, decides to make a documentary on a local Vermont couple. He embarked on this journey with no plan or budget. In the next six years, he traveled to nine states and two continents to interview numerous Apollo Astronauts, their wives, award-winning authors, artists, art historians, and even NASA directors of mission control. Eventually teaming with music legend Todd Hobin, they produce a story that otherwise would have never been told.

A Q & A with filmmaker Bill Muench and composer Todd Hobin will follow the screening.

Be a planetary explorer! Take a self-guided tour of our Solar System from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, created by ​MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

Weather permitting, we will meet outside the front of the Museum of Science and walk approximately 4.6km, learning 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history along the way. This is a nearly three-mile walk along Cambridge Street to Cambridge Common. Wear comfortable shoes and prepare to be outdoors for a few hours.

Event organizer Nancy Lowe is an artist interested in the rich ecotone — the boundary territory — between art and science. She makes art with science themes, teaches art-science workshops, curates art-science exhibits and performances, guides art-science residency programs, and leads citizen science projects and other activities for creative science engagement. She worked for over a decade as a technician in labs focusing on pollination biology, insect-plant interactions, and large-scale ecology.

Come explore the Sun with MIT Astrogazers! Our event will let you peek into a solar telescope and learn about sunspots, flares, and other solar phenomena up close and in detail. You will also have the opportunity to talk to astronomy experts about solar science and astronomy. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to witness the power and beauty of our nearest star!

Immerse yourself in space – and a take a picture to capture your discoveries!

We will demonstrate a home-built horn antenna radio telescope for observing 21 cm wavelength radio emission from neutral atomic hydrogen gas in the Milky Way. Plans and parts-list for building your own such telescope will be distributed. With such a telescope you can make your own map of the distribution of atomic hydrogen gas in our Galaxy, and measure its rotation.

What planets orbit the stars that shine brightly in our night sky? Are they gargantuan or minuscule? Warm or chilly? Part of a family or on their own? Meet the astronomers studying these exciting planets with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS. Learn with hands-on activities about the TESS mission (in operation since 2018!) and how astronomers at MIT and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian use this tiny but mighty telescope to find weird and wonderful worlds called “exoplanets”.

Spot the difference between a space rock and an Earth rock, hold a piece of solar system history, and learn about the ongoing exploration of outer space.

The Harvard Plate Stacks is presenting a special exhibition, Her Luminous Distance: The Legacies of Women Astronomical Computers at Harvard, in the rotunda and dome of the Great Refractor at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Free and open to the public, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of the Women Astronomical Computers and will illuminate to audiences the various disciplines and fields of study that have been inspired by these women and the astronomical photographs that they studied.