KENNEBUNK — A noted expert on black holes and neutron stars will be the featured speaker at the next meeting of the Astronomical Society of Northern New England.
The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 3 at The New School, 38 York St., Kennebunk, and all programs of the society are free and open to the general public.
Prior to the meeting, beginners are welcome to attend “Astronomy 101” by our Starlady Joan, at 6:30 p.m.
Professor Francois Foucart, who teaches in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Hampshire, will be the featured speaker at the May meeting. He was born in Brussels, Belgium, and studied engineering in Brussels and Paris before moving to the U.S. to complete a Ph.D. in Physics at Cornell University.
Foucart graduated from Cornell in 2011, before working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Center for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He has been at UNH since 2017.
He studies extremely compact astrophysical objects, such as black holes and neutron stars, using numerical simulations in the framework of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. He is in particular interested in what happens when a black hole and a neutron star, or two neutron stars, collide and merge.
These mergers produce the gravitational wave signals recently observed by the LIGO detectors as well as gamma-ray bursts, and they are (one of) the main source of production of gold, platinum, uranium, and of a large number of other heavy elements in the Universe.
His presentation is very timely, as an international scientific team just announced a milestone in astrophysics — the first-ever photo of a black hole — using a global network of telescopes to gain insight into celestial objects with gravitational fields so strong no matter or light can escape.
ASNNE is a local association of amateur astronomers that meets monthly at the New School, on Route 1 in Kennebunk. Meeting on the first Friday of each month, all those interested in astronomy are welcome; from stargazers and hobbyists, to serious observers, astrophotographers, and those interested in astronomical theory. The general public is also welcome.
It also hosts Star Parties at its own Talmage Observatory at Starfield on Route 35 in West Kennebunk.
For more information about ASNNE, including directions and events, or to contact the club, visit www.ASNNE.org.
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