Harry “Hap” McSween, a professor of planetary geoscience at the University of Tennessee, will discuss discoveries made by the Dawn spacecraft orbiting Vesta, the second most massive asteroid, during a Wednesday lecture in Oak Ridge.
McSween is a geologist and distinguished professor who has served as head of UT’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and as former interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
His 7 p.m. Wednesday lecture at the Grove Theater has been organized by the ORION astronomy club.
An ORION press release said McSween is a principal investigator on the Dawn project, which has spent about a year in orbit around Vesta. The release said Vesta is almost like a small terrestrial planet.
The Grove Theater is at 123 Randolph Road in Oak Ridge.
The release said ORION has supported educational and astronomy activities in Oak Ridge and the region since 1974, including the free public star gazes at the Tamke-Allan Observatory in Rockwood scheduled on the first and third Saturday of the month.
Mare Martell says
Is there any cost for this? I think my family would really dig it.
John Huotari says
Good question. I’ll check.
John Huotari says
It’s free and open to the public.