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An Author Night with Dr. Bonnie J. Buratti will be presented in the Library Community Room on Thursday, January 25, at 7 p.m. in the South Pasadena Library Community Room.
Dr. Buratti, a leading astronomer, will be discussing her new book, “Worlds Fantastic, Worlds Familiar: A Guided Tour of the Solar System.” The 2017 book is an engaging account written for non-specialist readers of high school age and above. Dr. Buratti, a Senior Research Scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will lead audience members on a fascinating tour of some of NASA’s latest discoveries. The free program is for all ages and is sponsored by the South Pasadena Public Library and the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library.
Moving through the Solar System from Mercury, Venus, and Mars, past comets and asteroids and the moons of the giant planets, all the way to Pluto, Dr. Bonnie will vividly describe some of the planetary landforms that are similar to those found on Earth. Her tour of the solar system will also include descriptions of such other-worldly land marvels as sulfur-rich lakes and volcanoes on other planets, active gullies on Mars, huge ice plumes and tar-like deposits on Saturn’s moons, near-bottomless hydrocarbon rivers and lakes on Titan, and massive nitrogen glaciers on Pluto.
Dr. Bonnie J. Buratti is currently serving on the Science Teams for both the Cassini and New Horizons missions. Dr. Buratti is also the NASA Project Scientist for the Rosetta Mission which heading to a comet. She also has expertise on the structure and evolution of icy moons and other small bodies and holds degrees from MIT and Cornell in Astronomy. The author or coauthor of over 200 scientific papers, Dr. Buratti has been awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, and the International Astronomical Union recognized her work by naming asteroid 90502 Buratti after her. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
On the morning of August 21, 2017, Dr. Bonnie served as the moderator for the Total Solar Eclipse program at the South Pasadena Library and earned many compliments and kudos from the full house audience. Those in attendance were also treated to a live feed from NASA coverage from throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The South Pasadena Library Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street. No tickets or reservations are necessary. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the free program.
