Tony Marston, a Herschel Instrument and Calibration Scientist team lead for the Herschel Science Centre at the European Space Agency, will give a lecture at Drake on Friday, April 13.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place at noon in Olin Hall, room 206, 1344 27th St.
Marston, former chair of the physics and astronomy department at Drake University, will draw on nine years of experience at the European Space Agency (ESA) in his talk, “Development and Achievements of the Herschel Space Observatory.”
Herschel, the ESA’s space observatory that was launched in 2009, carries the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space.
The objective of the observatory’s mission is to study the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies and to help understand how the universe came to be the way it is today. Its ability to explore further into space is allowing scientists to see new phenomena and a higher level of detail that have not been captured before.
Marston began his path toward becoming an astronomer at the University of Manchester, where he received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. In addition to his time at Drake and work at the ESA, Marston has collaborated on projects in Chile and Australia. In 2000, he joined the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology as the leader of an observer support team for NASA’s infrared astronomy program.
For more information, contact Charles Nelson, 515-271-3034 or charles.nelson@drake.edu.