The October 30 meeting of the Mississauga Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will focus on the planet Pluto.

Speaker: Professor Paul Delaney, York University

Title: Dwarf Planet Revealed: New Horizons at Pluto

The search for Pluto started in 1781 with the confirmed observation of Uranus.

It took until 1930 for an astronomer to find the "9th planet."  Little did Clyde Tombaugh know the excitement his discovery would generate in the 21st century.  However, the secrets of the last of the "classical planets" would not be revealed until the fly by of the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015.  This lecture will summarize the history of Pluto and the results sent back to date from New Horizons.  The revelations are unexpected!

Professor Paul Delaney

Paul Delaney is a senior lecturer and professor of physics and astronomy at York University in Toronto. He is also the director of the Division of Natural Science within the Faculty of Science at York, as well as the Master of Bethune College at York.

Delaney has his Master's degree in science. He has taught at York University since 1986. He earned his Bachelors in Science in Experimental Physics at the Australian National University in Canberra and his Master's degree in astronomy at the University of Victoria. Delaney has been the recipient of many faculty of science and engineering awards at York University. One of his classes deals with the possibility of life on Mars. Delaney is also the director of the observatory at the York University, and its outreach program. In the past, he has also worked as a nuclear physicist at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and a support astronomer with the McGraw-Hill Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.

He holds both Australian and Canadian citizenship, and resides in Simcoe County with his wife - whom he met while attending the University of Victoria - and their two sons.

The meeting will be held from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto,Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2082 in the William Davis Building. The meeting is open to the public and is free.  

Enter off of Mississauga Road. Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of theDavis Building. Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs untilyou reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator,follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the mainfloor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room.

Post meeting plans: we usually continue the discussion post-meeting at a local bar – please join us!