an astro-chat with

Professor Don Kurtz

Visiting Professor, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Lincoln, UK

Friday, 20 January 2023

7:00-8:00 pm

Live online

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The pulp-fiction writer Edgar Rice Burroughs published the first of the famous “Tarzan of the Apes” series in 1912. Teenage science fiction fans also read Burroughs’s series about the dashing Virginian hero John Carter on Mars. In these stories the imaginary inhabitants of Mars called their planet “Barsoom”. The moons of Mars were discovered in August 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall, who named them Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Panic, after the two sons of the Roman War God, Mars. These moons are tiny and they orbit very fast, giving them odd characteristics that humans on Mars will enjoy, perhaps in the not-too-distant future. Phobos is doomed to shatter and re-enter Mars’s atmosphere in only 100 million years! This little moon was even thought in the 1958 to be an ancient space station put up by long-ago Martians. This AstroChat will talk about the history, present and future of these two interesting moons.

This is our 14th Astro-Chat with our distinguished guest Professor Don Kurtz. The session will include a brief illustrated introduction followed by questions and answers. Members of the public will be able to ask questions in the live-chat. The event is hosted by Professor Andrei Zvelindovsky, Head of the School of Maths & Physics at the University of Lincoln, UK.